xylophone [Gr.,=wood sound], musical instrument having graduated wooden slabs that are struck by the player with small, hard mallets. The slabs are usually arranged like a keyboard, and the range varies from two to four octaves. Since the 1920s the xylophone has been equipped with tubular resonators and thus is essentially identical with the marimba. The latter, however, is deeper and larger, is often played by two or more players, and is struck with soft mallets.

Percussion instrument consisting of a set of tuned wooden bars that are struck with mallets. Primitive xylophones may consist of logs of graded length laid across two supporting logs; a pit may be dug underneath to serve as a resonator. The xylophone has long been one of the principal instruments of African music; it is also important in the Indonesian gamelan. The marimba is a Latin American xylophone. In the modern orchestral xylophone, the bars are laid out on a stand in keyboard arrangement, with vertical resonating tubes suspended under each bar. Seealso glockenspiel; vibraphone.

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