- published: 10 Mar 2008
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The xylophone (from the Greek words ξύλον — xylon, "wood" + φωνή —phonē, "sound, voice", meaning "wooden sound") is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden (not steel) bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use. The term may be used generally, to include all such instruments, such as the marimba and balafon or, more specifically, to refer to an orchestral instrument of somewhat higher pitch range than the chromatic marimba. It is sometimes mistakenly used of similar lithophones and metallophone instruments of the glockenspiel type such as the pixiphone.
The modern western xylophone has bars of rosewood, padak, or various synthetic materials such as fiberglass or fiberglass-reinforced plastic which allows a louder sound. Some can be as small a range as 2½ octaves but concert xylophones are typically 3½ or 4 octaves. The xylophone is a transposing instrument: its parts are written one octave below the sounding notes. Xylophones should be played with very hard rubber, polyball, or acrylic mallets. Sometimes medium to hard rubber mallets, very hard core, or yarn mallets are used for softer effects. Lighter tones can be created on xylophones by using wooden-headed mallets made from rosewood, ebony, birch, or other hard woods.
Actors: Fred Wilder (producer), Fred Wilder (editor), Fred Wilder (director), Fred Wilder (composer), Fred Wilder (writer), Jack Ritchie (actor), Kathleen Gregory (actress), Zen Josey (actress), Trixie Saltzberg (actress), Demetri Watkins (actor), Phil Bottoms (actor), Bill Ung (actor), Diego Sanson (actor), Stephanie Federoff (actress), Lee S. Whitaker (actress),
Genres: Fantasy, Music, Short,