Marimba

Marimba players in Africa

Xylophones are widely used in music of Asia and west and central Africa. In Latin America, enslaved Africans recreated them in the 16th and 17th centuries. The name marimba stems from Bantu marimba or malimba, 'xylophone'. According to some Western sources, the word 'marimba' is formed from ma 'many' and rimba 'single-bar xylophone,' however the use of the term marimba and/or derivative terms is not present in any West African language.[1][2] The instrument itself is present, but is called balafon or heri in Mali and/or Guinea, while it is known as gyil among the Gur peoples in and around northern Ghana and Burkina Faso. The word marimba and derivative words is used widely in East, Central and Southern Africa. A survey of the literature on the African marimba and related instruments, like the Xylorimba, likembe and ilimba indicate a relationship between the word marimba and the various lamellaphones found all over Central and East Africa. Other sources credit the creation of the marimba and the kalimba to Queen Marimba of the Wakambi people, who live south of Lake Victoria.[3] In the Shona language "imba" means song. Kuimba is to sing.[4] Marimba, is said to be the "mother of song" and the creator of all the instruments, including the marimba. Mama means mother in Kiswahili, so it makes perfect sense that the word mother would be combined with the word "imba" which is the unconjugated verb for 'sing'.[5] The karimba is also said to have been created by Queen Marimba.[3] In much of East & Central Africa the karimba is seen as a hand-held version of the marimba.

"The Marimba" from "The Capitals of Spanish America" (1888)

Diatonic xylophones were introduced to Central America in the 16th or 17th century. The first historical record of Mayan musicians using gourd resonator marimbas in Guatemala was made in 1680, by the historian Domingo Juarros. It became more widespread during the 18th and 19th centuries, as Mayan and Ladino ensembles started using it on festivals. In 1821, the marimba was proclaimed the national instrument of Guatemala in its independence proclamation.[6][7]

In 1850, Mexican marimbist Manuel Bolán Cruz (1810-1863), modified the old bow marimba, by the wooden straight one, lengthening the legs so that the musicians could play in a standing mode, expanded the keyboard and replaced the gourd resonators by wooden boxes.

In 1892, Mexican musician Corazón de Jesús Borras Moreno expanded marimba to include the chromatic scale by adding another row of sound bars, akin to black keys on the piano.[8]

The name marimba was later applied to the orchestra instrument inspired by the Latin American model. In the United States, companies like J.C. Deagan and the Leedy Manufacturing Company company adapted the Latin American instruments for use in western music. Metal tubes were used as resonators, fine-tuned by rotating metal discs at the bottom; lowest note tubes were U-shaped. The marimbas were first used for light music and dance, such as Vaudeville theater and comedy shows.[1] Clair Omar Musser was a chief proponent of marimba in the United States at the time.

French composer Darius Milhaud introduced marimbas into Western classical music with his 1947 Concerto for Marimba and Vibraphone. Four-mallet grip was employed to play chords, enhancing interest for the instrument.[1] In the late 20th century, modernist and contemporary composers found new ways to use marimba: notable examples include Leoš Janáček (Jenufa), Carl Orff (Antigonae), Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Hans Werner Henze (Elegy for Young Lovers), Pierre Boulez (Le marteau sans maître) and Steve Reich.

Marimba bars are typically made of either wood or synthetic material. Rosewood is the most desirable, while Padauk is a popular affordable alternative. Bars made from synthetic materials generally fall short in sound quality in comparison to wooden bars, but are less expensive and yield added durability and weather resistance,[9] making them suitable for outdoor use; marimbas with wooden bars are usually played inside because the bars are susceptible to pitch change due to weather. Bubinga (Guibourtia demeusei) and mahogany have also been cited as comparable to rosewood in quality for use as marimba bars.[10] The specific rosewood, Dalbergia stevensonii, only grows in Southern Guatemala and Belize, formerly the British Honduras.[11] This wood has a Janka rating of 2200, which is about three times harder than Silver Maple. The bars are wider and longer at the lowest pitched notes, and gradually get narrower and shorter as the notes get higher. During the tuning, wood is taken from the middle underside of the bar to lower the pitch. Because of this, the bars are also thinner in the lowest pitch register and thicker in the highest pitch register.

In Africa, most marimbas are made by local artisans from locally available materials.

Marimba bars produce their fullest sound when struck just off center, while striking the bar in the center produces a more articulate tone. On chromatic marimbas, the accidentals (black keys) can also be played on the extreme front edge of the bar, away from the node (the place where the string goes through the bar) if necessary. Playing on the node produces a sonically weak tone, and the technique is only used when the player or composer is looking for a muted sound from the instrument.

Contrabass marimba: range of G₁–G₃

Bass marimba: range of C₂–F₃

There is no standard range of the marimba, but the most common ranges are 4.3 octaves, 4.5 octaves and 5 octaves; 4, 4.6 and 5.5 octave sizes are also available.

• 4 octave: C₃ to C₇.
• 4.3 octave: A₂ to C₇. The .3 refers to three semitones below the 4 octave instrument. This is the most common range.
• 4.5 octave: F₂ to C₇. The .5 means "half";
• 4.6 octave: E₂ to C₇, one semitone below the 4.5. Useful for playing guitar literature and transcriptions.
• 5 octave: C₂ to C₇, one full octave below the 4 octave instrument, useful for playing cello transcriptions, e.g., J. S. Bach's cello suites.
• Bass range (varies, but examples range from G₁–G₃ or C₂–F₃)

The range of the marimba has been gradually expanding, with companies like Marimba One adding notes up to F above the normal high C (C₇) on their 5.5 octave instrument and marimba tuners adding notes lower than the low C on the 5 octave C₂. Adding lower notes is somewhat impractical; as the bars become bigger and the resonators become longer, the instrument must be taller and the mallets must be softer in order to produce a tone rather than just a percussive attack. Adding higher notes is also impractical because the hardness of the mallets required to produce the characteristic tone of a marimba are much too hard to play with in almost any other, lower range on the instrument.

The marimba is a non-transposing instrument with no octave displacement, unlike the xylophone which sounds one octave higher than written and the glockenspiel which sounds two octaves higher than written.

PVC resonators

Part of the key to the marimba's rich sound is its resonators. These are tubes (usually aluminum) that hang below each bar.

In the most traditional versions, various sizes of natural gourds are attached below the keys to act as resonators; in more sophisticated versions carved wooden resonators are substituted, allowing for more precise tuning of pitch. In Central America and Mexico, a hole is often carved into the bottom of each resonator and then covered with a delicate membrane taken from the intestine of a pig to add a characteristic "buzzing" or "rattling" sound known as charleo.[12] In more contemporary-style marimbas, wood is replaced by PVC tubing. The holes in the bottoms of the tubes are covered with a thin layer of paper to produce the buzzing noise.

The length of the resonators varies according to the frequency that the bar produces. Vibrations from the bars resonate as they pass through the tubes, which amplify the tone in a manner very similar to the way in which the body of a guitar or cello would. In instruments exceeding ​4 ¹⁄₂ octaves, the length of tubing required for the bass notes exceeds the height of the instrument. Some manufacturers, such as DeMorrow and Malletech, compensate for this by bending the ends of the tubes. This involves soldering smaller straight sections of tubes to form "curved" tubes. Both DeMorrow and Malletech use brass rather than aluminium. Others, such as Adams and Yamaha, expand the tubes into large box-shaped bottoms, resulting in the necessary amount of resonating space without having to extend the tubes. This result is achieved by the custom manufacturer Marimba One by widening the resonators into an oval shape, with the lowest ones reaching nearly a foot in width, and doubling the tube up inside the lowest resonators—a process known as "Haskelling", originally used in pipe organ resonators, and named for its inventor, William E. Haskell.

Resonator tuning involves adjusting "stops" in the tubes themselves to compensate for temperature and humidity conditions in the room where the instrument is stored. Some companies offer adjustment in the upper octaves only. Others do not have any adjustable stops. Still some companies (Malletech and DeMorrow) offer full range adjustable stops.

On many marimbas, decorative resonators are added to fill the gaps in the accidental resonator bank. In addition to this, the resonator lengths are sometimes altered to form a decorative arch, such as in the Musser M-250. This does not affect the resonant properties, because the end plugs in the resonators are still placed at their respective lengths.

The mallet shaft is commonly made of wood, usually birch, but may also be rattan or fiberglass. The most common diameter of the shaft is around 8 mm (¹⁄₄ in). Shafts made of rattan have a certain elasticity to them, while birch has almost no give. Professionals use both depending on their preferences, whether they are playing with two mallets or more, and which grip they use if they are using a four-mallet grip.

Appropriate mallets for the instrument depend on the range. The material at the end of the shaft is almost always a type of rubber, usually wrapped with yarn. Softer mallets are used at the lowest notes, and harder mallets are used at the highest notes. Mallets that are too hard will damage the instrument, and mallets that might be appropriate for the upper range could damage the notes in the lower range (especially on a padouk or rosewood instrument). On the lower notes, the bars are larger, and require a softer mallet to bring out a strong fundamental. Because of the need to use varying hardnesses of mallets, some players, when playing with four or more mallets, might use graduated mallets to match the bars that they are playing (softer on the left, harder on the right).

Some mallets, called "two-toned" or "multi-tonal", have a hard core, loosely wrapped with yarn. These are designed to sound articulate when playing at a loud dynamic, and broader at the quieter dynamics.