The
xylorimba (sometimes referred to as
xylo-marimba or
marimba-xylophone) is a pitched
percussionA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration...
instrumentA musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making the sounds of music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the beginnings of human culture...
corresponding to a
xylophoneThe xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family which probably originated in Slovakia. It consists of wooden bars of various lengths that are struck by plastic, wooden, or rubber mallets. Each bar is tuned to a specific pitch of the musical scale...
with an extended range (and not to a combination of a
xylophoneThe xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family which probably originated in Slovakia. It consists of wooden bars of various lengths that are struck by plastic, wooden, or rubber mallets. Each bar is tuned to a specific pitch of the musical scale...
with a
marimbaThe marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. Keys or bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones...
, although the name might imply that).
Like xylophone and marimba, the xylorimba consists of a series of wooden bars laid out like a
piano keyboardA musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...
with a compass sufficiently large to embrace the low-sounding bars of the marimba and the highest-sounding bars of the xylophone.
The lower notes of the xylorimba sound like a xylophone rather than a marimba on account of the bars being thicker and narrower than those of a marimba (the bars of the xylophone and the marimba are shaped differently to emphasize different overtones) and of the different size and shape of the
resonatorA resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior, that is, it naturally oscillates at some frequencies, called its resonance frequencies, with greater amplitude than at others. The oscillations in a resonator can be either electromagnetic or mechanical...
s.
The usual playng range of a modern xylorimba is five
octaveIn music, an octave , is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon which has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music," the use of which is "common in most musical systems." It may be derived from the...
s: from the C one octave below
middle CC or Do is the first note of the fixed-Do solfège.In Western music, the expression "Middle C" refers to the note "C" located exactly between the two staves of the grand staff and near the top and bottom, respectively, of the bass and soprano voices...
to the C four octaves above middle C (C3 to C8).
The
xylorimba (sometimes referred to as
xylo-marimba or
marimba-xylophone) is a pitched
percussionA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration...
instrumentA musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making the sounds of music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the beginnings of human culture...
corresponding to a
xylophoneThe xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family which probably originated in Slovakia. It consists of wooden bars of various lengths that are struck by plastic, wooden, or rubber mallets. Each bar is tuned to a specific pitch of the musical scale...
with an extended range (and not to a combination of a
xylophoneThe xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family which probably originated in Slovakia. It consists of wooden bars of various lengths that are struck by plastic, wooden, or rubber mallets. Each bar is tuned to a specific pitch of the musical scale...
with a
marimbaThe marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. Keys or bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones...
, although the name might imply that).
Like xylophone and marimba, the xylorimba consists of a series of wooden bars laid out like a
piano keyboardA musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...
with a compass sufficiently large to embrace the low-sounding bars of the marimba and the highest-sounding bars of the xylophone.
The lower notes of the xylorimba sound like a xylophone rather than a marimba on account of the bars being thicker and narrower than those of a marimba (the bars of the xylophone and the marimba are shaped differently to emphasize different overtones) and of the different size and shape of the
resonatorA resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior, that is, it naturally oscillates at some frequencies, called its resonance frequencies, with greater amplitude than at others. The oscillations in a resonator can be either electromagnetic or mechanical...
s.
The usual playng range of a modern xylorimba is five
octaveIn music, an octave , is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon which has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music," the use of which is "common in most musical systems." It may be derived from the...
s: from the C one octave below
middle CC or Do is the first note of the fixed-Do solfège.In Western music, the expression "Middle C" refers to the note "C" located exactly between the two staves of the grand staff and near the top and bottom, respectively, of the bass and soprano voices...
to the C four octaves above middle C (C3 to C8). It is a
transposing instrumentA transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which written notes are read at a pitch different from concert pitch, which a non-transposing instrument, such as a piano, would play. On a transposing instrument, a concert C is written as a different note; the concert pitch that is played for a...
, since music for xylorimba is written an octave lower than it sounds, using a grand
staffIn standard Western musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces, each of which represents a different musical pitch, or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments. Appropriate music symbols, depending upon the intended effect,...
with both bass and treble
clefA clef is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line...
s.
As the marimba-xylophone it was a popular instrument in the 1920s and 30s, particularly in
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
.
As the xylorimba (or, less commonly, the xylo-marimba) has been used in a number of 20th century classical works.
The terms have been a source of confusion. Many composers have called for ‘xylorimba’, including
Alban BergAlban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Life and work:Berg was born in...
,
Pierre BoulezPierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music and conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
and
Olivier MessiaenOlivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11 and numbered Paul Dukas, Maurice Emmanuel, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré among his teachers. He was appointed organist at the church of La Trinité in Paris in 1931, a...
, but invariably the parts were written for a four-octave xylophone (C4 to C8, nowadays the standard range for a concert xylophone). However, Pierre Boulez wrote for two true xylorimbas (each of five octaves) in
Pli selon pli.
Compositions including xylorimba (both four- and five-octave instruments):
- Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Life and work:Berg was born in...
: Drei Stücke [Three Pieces] for orchestra (1914-15, revised 1929)
- Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music and conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
: Le marteau sans maîtreLe marteau sans maître is a composition by the French composer Pierre Boulez. It is a setting of the surrealist poetry of René Char for alto and six instrumentalists. It was first performed in 1955.-Movements:...
for alto and six instruments (1953-55, revised 1957)
- Pierre Boulez: Pli selon pli
Pli selon pli is a piece of classical music by the French composer Pierre Boulez. It is for solo soprano and orchestra, and is based on the poems of Stéphane Mallarmé...
for soprano and orchestra (1957-62)
- Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11 and numbered Paul Dukas, Maurice Emmanuel, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré among his teachers. He was appointed organist at the church of La Trinité in Paris in 1931, a...
: Couleurs de la Cité Céleste for piano and chamber orchestra (1963)
- Olivier Messiaen: La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ
La transfiguration de notre seigneur Jésus-Christ is a piece of music that was written between 1965 and 1969 by Olivier Messiaen. Its content is based on the event of Jesus transfiguring on a mountain according to the report of the Synoptic Gospels. The music is on such a large scale that it...
for mixed choir, seven solo instruments and large orchestra (1965-69)
- Olivier Messiaen: Des canyons aux étoiles... for piano solo, horn, xylorimba, glockenspiel and orchestra (1971-74)
- Olivier Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise opera (1975-83)
- Olivier Messiaen: Éclairs sur l'Au-delà…
Éclairs sur l'au-delà… is an orchestral piece by the French composer Olivier Messiaen composed between 1987-1991 and is his last work...
for large orchestra (1988-92)