Talk:Xylophone

Grip

Two different sets of grip pages exist, and neither needs to be linked to here. I just edited this page to remove the following: "The xylophone makes use of both snare technique and advanced mallet techniques."

Here's why: (1) nothing about these grips is xylophone-specific; all mallet percussion instruments are frequently played with two and with four mallets. (2) the snare technique page is not as well-written as the traditional grip and matched grip pages, and traditional grip is a much more specific term. jp2 05:38, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

Examples in Recorded Music

I find the article's represenation of the xylophone's vast history to be somewhat, say, half-vast. Mahler and the Mars Volta? Have we really no better example of xylophones in pop music than the Mars Volta (and not even from a proper LP!)? I would be interested in seeing/contributing to a "Xylophones, Marimbas, and Vibraphones in Recorded Music" article -- am I the only one?--electric counterpoint 23:21, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

[American Analog Set] plays one, very well. JoeyGWilliams

   Of the recordings which are here, the on labelled "A jingle played on a xylophone", definitely sounds like a jingle played on a marimba. While a marimba may technically be xylophone in the general sense, it seems like it might be confusing. I changed it to say "A jingle played on a xylophone (marimba)", although I haven't actually checked what instrument it was made with because I would would have to make an account on freesound.org to ask "spazzo_1493" where he got the file, and I always read the terms of service.

NPOV

To an extent, the article is eurocentric. In contrasting Xylophone and Marimba, the meaning of the word is narrowed to a special kind of Xylophone (western concert instrument - the marimba is also a type of xylophone in the wider sense of the word). The global view at the start of the article is lost here. Later references are to music from the classical European tradition. The scope of the article should be widened. Indonesian and African xylophones must be discussed on the same level as the European tradition. The more narrow meaning of the word must be mentioned and explicitely contrasted to the wider use of the word in ethonmusicology. I will try to do some research here. Nannus 20:58, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree. We need an expert on the topic to describe African and Asian xylophones and balance the article. Your research would be very suitable here. Cmapm 12:01, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

   I think maybe it would be a good idea to create a separate page for the western concert xylophone. I came to this page to quickly look up information on the typical ranges of western concert xylophones while I was composing. Thankfully I play the instrument, so I can use my memory, and even if I had no experience I could look up instruments being sold, but I feel like there are probably others who want more specific information on western concert xylophones.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.18.5.181 (talk) 08:33, 3 July 2016 (UTC) 

Glockenspiel

I removed the following sentence added by Kiwimhm (or rv to s.q.a. rather) "It is similar to the Glockenspiel, but the xylophone's bars are wooden, while the glockenspiel's are metal." The xylophone's similarities with the marimba (as explained in the next sentence within the article) are more obvious both sound- and shapewise, moreover, unlike the Glockenspiel, the xylophone (like the marimba) is always played horizontally and (usually) has resonators. There is a link to glockenspiel on the bottom of the page, I think this should suffice. (On that note, I was looking for a page on mallet instruments in general, but haven't found any.) If the sentence is added again, I wont revert it a second time. ---Sluzzelin 10:03, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

English words beginning with the letter X

I removed the following sentence from the article: "Xylophone" is one of very few English words to begin with the letter X (excluding words like X-ray). I don't think it's encyclopedic information. Maybe if it were the only word, but isn't xylophone just one of many (as in more than fifty) word borrowings in the English language starting with the letter X? Sorry, I forgot to mention the removal in my edit summary. ---Sluzzelin 15:01, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Well the interesting thing is it DOESN'T start with the Roman letter X, it starts with the Greek letter chi. Surely the Greeks pronounced their word for wood 'Kylos'.. Surely... and Kavier.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.73.70.113 (talk) 23:53, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

toys

Maybe it should be mentioned that xylophone toys are very popular for toddlers in the US. Violask81976 19:52, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Very true. By the way I recently uploaded this nice photo of a Toy Xylophone

Not my photo. I went and found it on flickr because I wanted a good illustration for this: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:Alphabet/X

-- Harry Wood (talk) 11:08, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Origin

The article begins, "The xylophone (from the Greek words ξύλον - xylon, "wood" + φωνή - phone, "voice", meaning "wooden sound") is a musical instrument in the percussion family which probably originated in Slovakia.[1]"

It continues, "The xylophone is a historical instrument that originated independently in Africa and Asia."

I get all my facts from Wikipedia so now I don't know what to believe. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.4.5.61 (talk) 17:47, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Comparison

A comparison between the different and similar features of xylophones, marimbas and vibrophones would be a useful addition, perhaps as a table. JMcC (talk) 20:38, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Removed text... Semantron

Removed The semantron (Greek: σήμαντρον) or semanterion (σημαντήριον), also called a xylon (ξύλον) (Romanian: toacă; Russian: било, bilo; Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian: клепало, klepalo) is a percussion instrument used in monasteries to summon monks to prayer or at the start of a procession. We actually have an article on the Semantron which this didn't even link to.

It should be mentioned, but not quite in this way. Andrewa (talk) 04:02, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Two paragraphs that appear to not belong here

Two paragraphs about Zimbabwean Marimbas and Zimbabwean Marimba bands appear to NOT belong in this article about xylophones. (Perhaps they DO belong in the article about marimbas. I don't know. I'm not an expert on mallet instruments or on Africa.)

The two paragraphs in question are the last paragraph of the article (starts "According to Professor Andrew Tracy") and the third-to-last paragraph of the article (starts "In the U.S., there are Zimbabwean marimba bands").

I've uncovered the fact that this information entered this xylophone article in an edit made by Redheylin on 18:39, 5 June 2011. At that time, these two paragraphs were in a different place, and everything made sense in their context. Since then, paragraphs have been moved and info has been separated into different sections. The result is that it's not at all clear WHERE these two paragraphs belong. (It's not even clear that they should be moved to the marimba article, which is what I at first suspected.)

The material imported into this xylophone article by Redheylin on 18:39, 5 June 2011 mentioned "marimba", "silimba", "shilimba" and "Zimbabwe". The article on marimba has currently no mention of Zimbabwe. Its thrust is that the marimba was invented in Guatemala, after "diatonic xylophones were introduced to Central America in the 16th or 17th century."

Another point which would need to be addressed is whether either "marimba" or "xylophone" is a generic term which includes the other (whether "marimba" is a type of "xylophone", or "xylophone" is a type of "marimba") or whether the various African instruments mentioned are types of "marimba".

I am not the person who is qualified to fix this situation, but someone should fix it. I just stumbled upon the situation when I fixed the vandalism of "1968" having been changed to "198e" on 20 February, 2014, and then saw the HTML comment "shouldn't this list go in the list of Marimba players article, not here?" appended to the end of the paragraph.

If the information is factual, it should probably be included in SOME wikipedia article, but which one? As a somewhat-"Newby" Wikipedia article-editor, I am not prepared to criticize the work of Redheylin, nor to get involved in edit wars between him/her and other editors.

Thank you for your attention. Artpitkin (talk) 01:34, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Xylophone made out of metal

I notice the article says xylophones come from wood but i own a metal xylophone please fix this error 198.52.13.15 (talk) 21:23, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

   These word "xylophone" refers to a wooden instrument because "xylo" means "wood." The introduction to the article mentions that the term is popularly used to refer to non-wooden instruments. I of course haven't seen your instrument, but, as someone who plays percussion in a U.S.A. band setting, I suspect I would describe your "metal xylophone" as a bell set, a glockenspiel, or some other sort of metallophone rather than a "real" xylophone. There are fiberglass "xylophones," though, which this article mentions in the "description" section, and which are called "xylophones" and used as xylophones, even though it isn't really logical to call them "woodsounds" except in that they sound somewhat similar to wooden instruments.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.18.5.181 (talk) 08:16, 3 July 2016 (UTC) 

Nothing on orchestral variants

There are at least two seemingly quite rare orchestral variants of western xylophones referred to as the tenor and bass xylophone, but not a word is breathed about them here. Tenor xylophone is, for example, called for in Carl Orff's works and is even documented as such here on Wikipedia in articles such as Trionfo di Afrodite, which of course neglect to link to anything or offer any explanation themselves. These are not the same thing as a marimba or the other types of instruments listed here as far as I can tell, though a marimba is apparently often substituted for them due to their rarity. QuasarTE (talk) 05:22, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

Yeah, most of the mallet instrument pages are kind of bad. I wonder if this page should be split. One page could focus on the traditional African instrument, with minor mentions of the student, toy, and orchestra versions that descend from it, and the other fully focuses on the orchestral, Western version and its variants. There would certainly be enough information to support the two pages. It would be like the flute and Western concert flute. Why? I Ask (talk) 06:23, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

I did further research and stumbled on some pages on the Italian Wikipedia that do explain it: it:Antigonae, it:Prometheus (Orff). They claim that they are Orff Schulwerk instruments he invented for his educational program. However, a confusing claim is made that the scores call for chromatic versions of the instruments in order to enable chromatic glissandi that aren't performable on ordinary xylos. Thing is I can't find any evidence for the existence of such instruments - the whole design ethos of the Orff xylophones was to simplify the keyboard layout for children and beginners by eliminating the chromatic ("black") piano keys and just leaving a diatonic C scale (with the possibility of swapping bars for an F or G scale, or adding back the chromatic notes with an entirely separate add-on). So this is still mysterious at best. --QuasarTE (talk) 04:48, 9 September 2023 (UTC)

There are also full on orchestral (i.e., chromatic) bass xylophones, too. Most percussion reference books refer to them as a xylophone pitched one or two octaves lower, though it is hard to tell the dividing line between a xylorimba and bass xylophone based on the poor amount of literature on the two. However, like I said, perhaps this page ought to be split. Why? I Ask (talk) 05:03, 9 September 2023 (UTC)