- What are the possibilities with the instrument:
The instrument is from 4 octaves, or 4 1/3 octaves or 5 octaves (C2 – C7). The 5 octaves instrument is often used in the university level, the 4 1/3 or 4 octaves are used for the children due to the length and the range of the instrument.
The marimba is tuned in 442 hz, but they can be also tuned in 443 hz or 440 hz.
The instrument can be percussive but also can be lyrical, smooth, warm and powerful instrument
Nowadays, the manufactory makes the marimba adjustable in which is better for the tall persons.
A wide variety of mallets (about a dozen gradations) are available between very hard mallets which in the high range would produce a xylophone-y quality (hard mallets in the lower range produce a very brittle quality and can harm the instrument if played with loudly) — to very soft mallets which bring out the richness of the bass notes (and which don't "speak" at all in the upper range). If you have a certain type of mallet in mind to achieve a special effect or timbre, it's best to simply write out what you're after, with a foot-note if necessary.
A roll (tremolo) can be executed by the two mallets of one hand or the other while the other hand is doing something else. This can be a roll on one note or between two notes encompassing any reachable interval. However, this is difficult to do much beyond mf. It is also difficult to play one-handed rolls for any length of time. Interspersing rolls between the two hands (i.e., alternating strokes) can alleviate the muscle fatigue of continuous one-handed rolls. In general, when you use two fingers (the thumb and the index finger) from each hand on piano and that will probably be the suitable way to write for the instrument.
- What is the difference between xylophone and marimba
In an examination of the process of tuning the marimba, it is relevant to contrast its predominant overtone with that of the xylophone. In the case of the xylophone, the overtone which is most readily perceived and has the most effect on the listener's perception of pitch and timbre is located an octave and a fifth above the fundamental . This corresponds to the third mode of vibration (second overtone) of the bar.
The marimba, however, has its most significant overtone two octaves above the fundamental, at the fourth mode of vibration. Therefore, when tuning the marimba, it is particularly important to ensure that this overtone sounds at the appropriate frequency, or the marimba's characteristic timbre may be lost.
The introduction of a resonator to a system causes a great deal of interference among sound waves. The end result of this is that while the initial intensity of the sound is greater, since two sources are resonating rather than one, the decay is more rapid due to the proximity of the two vibrating elements.
In Neville Fletcher and Thomas Rossing's The Physics of Musical Instruments, also illustrates a principal, presented in the same book, that could account for the widespread misconception that resonators prolong the sound of a vibrating bar. In the graph, we observe the sound pressure levels of the two types of marimbas over time. While A is greater at the outset and remains louder for much of the duration of the experiment, it eventually crosses B's line and is the first of the two to fall silent. However, assume that the dotted line is a threshold of hearing, elevated by background noise or the sounds of a performing ensemble. In this case, the marimba with resonators could seem to have a longer duration of sound, since it hits the threshold after the unresonated marimba.
With this in mind, the tuning process may begin. Essentially, the marimba is tuned in the following manner, as defined in Neville Fletcher and Thomas Rossing's book The Physics of Musical Instruments (page 541):
- An arch is cut, as shown in Example I, so as to leave the bar approximately a semitone above the desired pitch.
- Material is removed from the regions marked A to lower both the fundamental and first overtone. Moving toward the center lowers the fundamental more rapidly; moving toward the ends favors the first overtone.
- If the overtone is tuned and the fundamental is too high, a notch can be cut at B. If the fundamental is too low, material must be removed from the ends of the bar.
- If the fundamental is tuned and the overtone is still high, notches can be cut near the ends of the arch (just beyond point A).
-Music examples:
Reflection on Japanese Children’s Song III – Keiko Abe
Midare – Ton de Leuww
Ripple – Akira Miyoshi
Monovalence I – Shin-ichiro Ikebe
Velocities – Joseph Shwantner
Merlin – Andrew Thomas
Un Chien Dehors – Jean Pierre Drouet
Five Scenes from the snow Country – Hans Werner Henze
Convergence I – Youshihisa Taira
