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All about the xylophone. Xylophone: interesting facts, video, history, photo, listen. The role of the xylophone in music

The Flight FX-12R xylophone is a must buy for every kid or adult, the xylophone is made of wood and, unlike the metallophone, has an unusually pleasant sound!

Xylophone as the first instrument for a baby is a great choice!

The melodious sound of the xylophone will bring pleasure to the baby and parents, the learning process is very simple and accessible, this is the ideal solution for the initial musical training of the baby. The keys of the xylophone correspond to the white keys of the piano, and the baby will easily master a new instrument - a melody, a piano or a synthesizer, or even an accordion, playing already familiar melodies.

To teach kids, we have prepared colored stickers for the keys, thanks to which you can play according to the Semitsvetik method. Put stickers on the top of the keys, select a song, and start playing - colored notes don't require musical literacy!

Xylophone- a percussion musical instrument, has an ancient origin - the simplest instruments of this type are found among different peoples of Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. In Europe, the first mention of the xylophone dates back to the beginning of the 16th century. It is a series of wooden bars of different sizes, tuned to certain notes, which are struck with sticks. The instrument can be used both solo and in an ensemble.

Specifications:

  • Xylophone FLIGHT FX-12R
  • Has 12 keys
  • 2 sticks included
  • Set of colored stickers
  • Composition: wood, metal, fabric
  • Xylophone tuning: from lower A on large keys to upper E on small keys.

Before - red
Re-orange,
Mi is yellow
Fa - green
Salt - blue
La - blue
C is purple.

When playing the xylophone, place the large keys on the left.

The order of labels from large to small keys is blue, purple, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue, purple, red, orange, yellow.

"Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits!"

Now you can play according to the "SEMITSVETIK" method.

METHOD "SEMI-COLOR" for xylophone 12 keys

We place the large keys of the xylophone on the left, the small keys on the right.

Large keys are low tones, small keys are high. The smaller the key, the higher the sound.

Pitch Notes- on the xylophone diagram - 2 sizes of keys, from large to small from left to right. They represent the pitch of the note. Large keys - we play on the left side of the xylophone, small keys - on the right.

The height of the rectangle in the diagram will indicate the key corresponding in height.

Duration– the width of the keys indicates the duration of the note.

A square is a half, a half-square is a quarter, and so on. The thinner the note, the shorter the duration.

Exclusive Semitsvetik technique, step by step.

  • Learning to play according to the "Semitsvetik" pattern on the xylophone
  • Learn notes by verse
  • We remember the visual correspondence of the melody to the written color notes.
  • Melodies and songs are selected according to the repertoire of piano textbooks for elementary education
  • We turn to the piano, playing familiar melodies.

From xylophone to piano.

The keys of the xylophone are located in the same way as the keys of the piano, and this formed the basis of the Semitsvetik teaching methodology. We use a xylophone with colored keys as the first instrument of the baby, we play the xylophone according to the Semitsvetik pattern. The bottom line is that, having learned to play the xylophone, the baby will easily move on to playing the piano. At the same time, he will not only learn to play, but will also know the notes, their names and location. We tried to select the melodies that traditionally begin training, so the baby will be familiar with the repertoire in advance and will easily master playing any instrument.

Xylophones are made of natural wood, tuned to a humidity of 40 percent, with changes in humidity, a slight change in tuning is possible. With increasing humidity, the system decreases, with a decrease it rises. With a significant change in tuning, you can independently adjust the xylophone:

  • to lower the tone, sand the key from below or make a notch in AVERAGE parts, on the bottom plane
  • to increase the tone, sand the bottom of the key along EDGE(on the lower plane of the protruding parts).


FLIGHT FX-12R Xylophone (12 notes)

Glockenspiel … Spelling Dictionary

GLOCKENSPIEL- (Greek metallon metal, and phone sound). Xylophone, in which wooden plates are replaced by metal ones. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. metallophone (see metal + ... background) the general name of a group of music ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

glockenspiel- bell, vibraphone, glockenspiel, xylophone, gong Dictionary of Russian synonyms. metallophone n., number of synonyms: 6 vibraphone (2) ... Synonym dictionary

GLOCKENSPIEL- [alo], glockenspiel, husband. (from Greek metallon metal and phone sound) (music). Percussion musical instrument, consisting of a series of steel plates of different lengths, fastened with cords. Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

GLOCKENSPIEL- In our time, there are quite a few instruments, the sound of which arises from the vibration of an elastic metal body. These are triangles, gong, bells, cymbals and other percussion instruments. All of them are united by a common name ... ... Music dictionary

Glockenspiel- a musical instrument sometimes used in an orchestra (Carillon, Glockenspiel). It consists of a series of steel plates of various lengths, supported at their nodal points by cords or straw cords. Pitch, i.e., the number of vibrations in ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Glockenspiel- m. Percussion musical instrument, consisting of a number of specially selected metal plates, which are struck with wooden mallets. Explanatory Dictionary of Ephraim. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language Efremova

glockenspiel- he is a metallof, but ... Russian spelling dictionary

glockenspiel- (2 m); pl. metallophones, R. metallophones / new ... Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language

glockenspiel- Metal platelarny bilgele ber tärtiptә tezep eshlәngәn һәm agach chүkechcheklәr belәn sugyp uyny torgan coral music … Tatar telenen anlatmaly suzlege

Books

  • Developing set "Little musician" according to the method of M. Lazarev,. Educational set "Little musician" for children from 1 to 5 years old, aimed at developing the creative abilities of the baby and teaching him to play musical instruments. Includes: 15 cards...

XYLOPHONE

Ding-ding, tone-tone,

Xylo-xylo-xylo-background.

The xylophone climbed onto the cabinet,

He was afraid of the flamingo.

- You, flamingo, wait!

Do not knock hard with your beak,

Better get a wand.

And you will hear a gentle sound.

Just a miracle - a xylophone.

"Xylophone" in Greek means singing tree. The first xylophone appeared, perhaps, when a primitive man hit a dry tree with a stick and heard an unusual sound. Currently, similar simple xylophones are found in Africa, Asia and South America. It was brought to Europe by itinerant musicians.

A xylophone consists of a large number of wooden blocks that emit sounds of different pitches when struck. Bars are made of maple, alder, walnut, sometimes rosewood. They are placed on a braided rope made of straw, matting or rubber. The design is usually installed on a table, sometimes resonators are fixed under the bars - hollow metal cylinders. The sound of the xylophone is jerky, dryish and clicking. It is extracted with the help of "goat legs" - wooden sticks with thickenings at the ends, similar to spoons.

Sometimes, instead of wooden blocks, metal ones are used. This is a metallophone or vibraphone. He has all the records on the same level, while on the xylophone the bars corresponding to the black keys of the piano are slightly raised. The vibraphone is a complex design. It is placed on a special three-frame table-stand, moved on four wheels. Appeared in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Due to its characteristic timbre and great virtuosity, the vibraphone is widely used in music.

But if you attach a keyboard mechanism like a piano to a metallophone, you get a celesta instrument. It was made by the master Auguste Müster in 1886. It is more convenient to play the celesta than with sticks on a metallophone. And the sound is just as gentle and sonorous. During his visit to Paris, P. I. Tchaikovsky heard the celesta and was so fascinated by its magical sound that he introduced the part of this instrument into his compositions: the ballad "Voivode" and the ballet "The Nutcracker".

The xylophone was first used in an orchestra by Ferdinand Cauer in the middle of the 19th century. in "Seven Variations" One of the most famous compositions in which the xylophone is involved is the symphonic poem by Saint-Saens "Dance of Death". The Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov in The Tale of Tsar Saltan entrusted the xylophone with the song “In the garden, in the garden” to depict a squirrel gnawing golden nuts.

- (Greek xylon tree, and phone sound). Musical. an instrument consisting of a number of wooden plates, placed. on straw and tuned in a certain way, from which sounds are extracted by blows of two wooden hammers. Dictionary of foreign words, ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Metallophone, marimba, glockenspiel, tubaphone Dictionary of Russian synonyms. xylophone n., number of synonyms: 7 verillon (1) ... Synonym dictionary

xylophone- a, m. xylophone m., German. Xelophon gr. xylon wood + phone sound. A musical instrument consisting of a number of wooden records attached to a box and selected in a certain order, which are struck with mallets. BAS 1. Xylophone. Orchestra … Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

- (from xylo ... and ... background), percussion musical instrument: a set of wooden blocks of various lengths. Widespread in many nations. In European professional music from the beginning of the 19th century; modern varieties of marimba, tubafon and others ... Modern Encyclopedia

- (from xylo ... and ... background) percussion self-sounding musical instrument. Consists of a number of wooden blocks of various lengths. Distributed among many peoples, mainly in Africa, South East. Asia, Latin America. In the European professional ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

XYLOPHONE, xylophone, husband. (from Greek xylon tree and phone sound) (music). A musical instrument consisting of a series of wooden records attached to a box, which are struck with wooden sticks. Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935… … Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

XYLOPHONE, a, husband. A percussion musical instrument in the form of a row of wooden blocks, which are struck with wooden mallets. | adj. xylophone, oh, oh. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

xylophonist- name of a human family, istota ... Spelling Dictionary of Ukrainian Movies

A percussion musical instrument consisting of a set of wooden records on a stand, which are struck with sticks. In Malaysia, different types of xylophone are common, from rough plates lying on the lap of performers, to complex ones ... ... Collier Encyclopedia

In 1874, the French composer Saint Sans wrote a work that he called "Dance of Death". When it was performed for the first time, some listeners were horrified: they heard the sound of bones, as if Death was really dancing, a terrible skeleton with ... ... Music dictionary

Books

  • Xylophone for children (in a box, 36 cm) (D-00043) , . Xylophone for children. Length 36 cm. Made of wood and plastic. Not recommended for children under 3 years of age. Contains small parts. For children from 3 years under adult supervision. Made in…
  • Xylophone toy "Little Maestro" (SS 76754) , . Xylophone toy "Little Maestro" . Material: plastic with metal elements. For children from 18 months. Packing: box, carton. Made in China…

Musical Instrument: Xylophone

French composer C. Saint-Saens , inspired by the engravings of the 15th-century German artist Hans Holbein, wrote a symphonic poem with the chilling title " Dance of Death ". During the premiere performance of this work, some of the listeners were numb with fear, as if a really terrible skeleton with hollow eye sockets in the skull and with a rusty scythe was dancing a terrible dance, rattling its bones. How did the composer manage to create such an artistic image of a terrible image and achieve such an effect? A musical instrument, whose name is a xylophone, helped the author to portray such a character so frighteningly.

Read the history and many interesting facts about this musical instrument on our page.

Sound

To figuratively describe the sound of the xylophone, one must certainly recall the works of the great Russian composer A. Lyadov, his symphonic pictures "Kikimora" and "Baba Yaga" , where both the ominous clattering of the teeth of a terrible kikimora and the swiftly rushing witch, breaking dried branches in her path, are very expressively depicted. The inclusion of the xylophone in the musical palette is usually associated with the peculiarity of the plot or peculiar experiences. Due to the dryish, clicking, somewhat boney coloring, the sound of this instrument is wonderfully used in pictorial designs. For example, the song of a squirrel gnawing nuts, in " Tale of Tsar Saltan " ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov commissioned the xylophone.


Sometimes the timbre color of the instrument's sound evokes a gloomy mood, and sometimes it gives rise to intricate, ugly comic images, or sounds melancholy in Symphony No. 7 by D. Shostakovich , in the episode "Invasion".

The sound of the xylophone, which largely depends on the skill of the musician, can be very diverse: ominous, terrifying and piercing, or it can be light, affectionate and soulful. On "forte" the xylophone sounds sharp and loud, on "piano" - warm and velvety.

Range The sound of the xylophone is quite wide - these are four octaves of musical sounds.

A photo:





Interesting Facts:

  • The xylophone was very popular in the ragtime genre at the beginning of the twentieth century, and also in the 70s of the last century, when the revival of the genre began.
  • Until the 40s of the last century, the xylophone was very actively used in jazz bands, until it was replaced by the vibraphone, and the xylophone also appeared regularly and was very popular in American musicals in the first half of the 20th century.
  • In the African state of Senegal, the xylophone is used in the rite of initiation for boys and girls.
  • The xylophone is very often used in film production for scoring horror films.


  • On the African continent, in many countries, the xylophone is recognized as a national instrument, it is played in groups, sometimes up to six instruments, both at holidays and at funerals.
  • The xylophone is actively used in scoring animated films, an example is the popular animated series The Flintstones.
  • The peoples of Africa have a lot of varieties of xylophone, for example, there are giant xylophones, which are played by 4 people at the same time.
  • Famed xylophonist Green George Hamilton was assigned to voice the moving carriage on his instrument in the first three Walt Disney cartoons.
  • The largest of the playing xylophones is 8 m long, 2.5 m high and 2 m wide, it was made by B. Mamoto from Indonesia in 2009. His weight was 3168 kg.
  • In many African countries, the xylophone is used for practical purposes: to scare away monkeys, birds and other garden pests.


  • The largest ensemble of xylophonists consisted of 1223 members and performed at the Maesa Tondano stadium in Indonesia at the festival of culture and art on October 31, 2009.
  • Red Norvo was not only a popular actor, but also a renowned xylophonist who was one of the first to introduce the xylophone to jazz.
  • The American rock band Violent Femmes recorded a video in 1982 in which the xylophone was the main instrument.
  • In Asia, empty gourds are used as resonators for the xylophone.
  • At the opera house, the xylophone was first used in opera "Hansel and Gretel" E. Humperdinck in 1893.
  • The hammers played by xylophonists are affectionately known as "goat's feet".
  • For orchestras or individual instrumentalists, xylophone manufacturers make instruments of various sizes, from small piccolos to large bass models.

Works for xylophone

A. Hovaness - Fantasy on the themes of Japanese prints for xylophone and orchestra (listen)

E. Glennie - Concertino for xylophone and orchestra


Xylophone construction

The modern xylophone is an instrument with a fairly simple design, consisting of a frame on which two rows of wooden bars are fixed, laid like piano keys and having a certain pitch. The shorter the bar, the higher the sound and vice versa. Each key (bar) lies on a special soft pad, which is made of foam rubber.


Xylophone keys are carved from rosewood, alder, rosewood, maple, walnut, which is aged for two years, then carefully processed. The keys have a standard size - 3.8 cm wide and 2.5 cm thick, the length depends on the desired pitch. Then they are laid out at a certain distance and fastened with cords. Special metal tubes are placed under the keys, the role of which is to increase the sound volume. These are tubes - resonators that give the sound volume and make it brighter and more saturated. They are very carefully processed and tuned to match the tone of the plate.

When playing, the performer usually uses thin wooden sticks, similar to small spoons, with plastic, rubber or wooden tips. There are usually two sticks, but depending on the professionalism of the musician, there may be 3 or 4. The xylophonist chooses sticks and tips that are most suitable for the nature of the music, in order to reproduce a certain sound mood.

An instrument for professional performers, as a rule, is located on a special stand, the level of which changes depending on the position of the performer - sitting or standing.

Varieties of the xylophone

The xylophone family is very large and diverse - it is one of the most famous ethnic musical instruments. Every nation has its own xylophone. In the African, Asian and American continents, xylophones exist in many different forms and with many names. Here is some of them:


  • Balafon popular in Angola, Guinea, Mali, Madagascar, Cameroon, Congo, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast.
  • Timbila is the national instrument of Mozambique.
  • Mokkin- A xylophone from Japan.
  • Marimba- very common in Mexico and Central America.
  • vibraphone and bells (metallophones) - varieties of the xylophone, the sound plates of which are made not of wood, but of metal - all these instruments are united by the same structure.

Application

For a very long time, the xylophone was used only in folk music, but after significant transformations, the range of its use has grown significantly. Many orchestras - symphonic, pop, folk, brass, big band - include in their repertoire works that the xylophone adorns with its sound. There are also ensembles, which include only percussion instruments and xylophones, including. Today, these self-sufficient high-pitched percussion instruments, their extraordinary sound, encourages musicians to form groups in which performers play only such a group of instruments, among which the Marimba Mix ensemble from St. Petersburg should be noted.

Currently, the xylophone is used in various musical genres - this is folk, Latin American, classical music , ragtime, musical, jazz , sometimes even rock, etc.


The fine sound of the xylophone was used by many composers in their compositions: D. Shostakovich in the ballet suite "Golden Age", A. Khachaturyan in the ballet Gayane ( famous sword dance ), I. Stravinsky in the ballet "Petrushka", V. Oransky in the ballet "Three Fat Men", D. Klebanov in the ballet "Stork" and others.

The xylophone can often be heard on stage as a solo instrument, and here the performers are very lucky, as the masterpieces of great composers written for violin, flute, and piano sound great on it. However, the xylophone did not go unnoticed. P. Creston, M. de Falla, A. Hovaness, D. Corigliano, S. Slonimsky, A. Aslamas, V. Blok, J. Delescluze, A. Jacques, B. Moshkov, D. Paliev, O. Chishko, E Khanjiev and many others composed their works for him.

Notable artists

The performance of virtuoso works on the xylophone is available only to truly talented performers. The first virtuoso musician who fully revealed the technical and expressive capabilities of the instrument, and also seriously influenced the next generation of performers, was its creator, M. Guzkov

The successful development of xylophone performance was favored by the emergence of a whole galaxy of virtuoso musicians, among them: K. Mikheev, I. Troyanov, M. Eichhorn, M. Raskatov, M. Maslovsky, V. Shteiman, O. Khvedkevich, A. Emelyanov, N. Kurganova, V. Snegirev, A. Ogorodnikov, K. Fishkin, T. Egorova, E. Galoyan, Red Norvo, Zeleny D. Hamilton, H. Breuer, B. Becker, E. Glennie, I. Finkel, A. Poddubny, A. Reshetova and many others.

Story


The history of the xylophone began a very long time ago, about two thousand years before our era. On the walls of ancient temples there are images of people playing music on instruments resembling a xylophone in appearance. Art historians are hotly debating where the homeland of this instrument is located: some consider Africa, others Asia, and others intend to prove that Latin America - an impressive number of the simplest xylophones were found on these continents.

There is still no definite information - it is only known that this instrument appeared in ancient times, and the first xylophone was simple wooden bars, which, when struck, made a sound pleasant to human hearing. Then the bars were tied in a certain way and they began to play music on them.

Variations of the xylophone have existed for many years in many cultures.

Ancient frescoes testify that the instrument came to the European continent in the 15th century, but did not receive wide distribution, remaining mainly an instrument of itinerant musicians. The design of the xylophone of that time was quite simple and consisted of blocks of different lengths connected to each other, which were quickly laid out on a flat surface. It was played with sticks made of willow wood in the form of small spoons. The sonic capabilities of the xylophone were quite limited.

Only in the first half of the 19th century did the design of the instrument undergo fundamental changes. The xylophone owes a significant transformation to the Belarusian cymbalist M. Guzikov, who increased the range of the instrument to two and a half octaves of the chromatic scale, adding the number of plates and arranging them in a certain order in 4 rows. The appearance of the instrument has changed, the sound has become the most saturated and pleasant, since the sound plates were placed on straw tubes, which acted as a sound resonator. This design became the basis of the current xylophone and was used in the future for a hundred years.

After significant changes in the design, composers and professional musicians paid special attention to the instrument. The xylophone became part of the symphony orchestra, and later entered the concert stage, becoming a solo instrument. Problems with the repertoire for solo performances by xylophonists were solved in a certain way: various arrangements and transcriptions of popular works were made.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the design of the xylophone underwent a number of significant changes, from a four-row one to a two-row one. The bars were arranged like piano keys, the range increased by half an octave, which increased the possibilities of the instrument and made almost the entire violin repertoire available for performance.

Xylophone is a very significant and beloved instrument all over the world. Music enthusiasts hope that the popularity of the xylophone will grow from year to year, and it will undoubtedly be a valuable member of the orchestra due to its unique sound. It is a world cultural heritage and walks with a person through time, bringing joy and peace to his life.

Xylophone