Marimbaphone
The marimbaphone is an obsolete tuned percussion instrument, developed by J. C. Deagan, Inc., of Chicago, Illinois, in the early 20th century.
Description[edit]
The marimbaphone had either shallow steel or wooden bars arranged chromatically with a tube resonator under each bar. Its timbre was similar to the celesta, and it was used mainly by marimba bands and as a solo instrument by stage artists.
In addition to being played with mallets in the conventional way (as in the playing of a marimba or vibraphone), the marimbaphone was designed so that its bars could be rotated from a horizontal position to a vertical position, allowing them to more easily be played with a bow. To further facilitate bowing, the ends of its bars were shaped to be concave rather than flat. A single marimbaphone could be played by more than one performer, allowing both techniques to be used simultaneously.[1]
Although the instrument has been comparatively little used in art music (Percy Grainger was one of only a few composers ever to call for it), the name is mistakenly written in many scores intending the use of the ordinary marimba rather than the marimbaphone.[2]
Steel marimba[edit]
Also invented by Deagan was the steel marimba, a variation on the steel marimbaphone design that was intended to be played strictly with mallets and not bowed.[3] Both of these instruments were superseded by the invention of the vibraphone in 1921.[4]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "The Deagan Resource - A Historical Reference Catalog of Deagan Instruments". www.deaganresource.com. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
- ^ Blades, James (2001). Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Marimbaphone" (Second ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0195170672.
- ^ "The Deagan Resource". www.deaganresource.com. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
- ^ "vibraphone · Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection · Grinnell College Libraries". omeka-s.grinnell.edu. Retrieved 2024-02-12.
External links[edit]
- Deagan Steel Marimbaphone exhibit from Percussive Arts Society Museum site
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