Meet The Instruments

The Percussion Family

The Xylophone

The xylophone (from Ancient Greek ξύλον (xúlon) ‘wood’, and φωνή (phōnḗ) ‘sound, voice’;^[1][2] lit. ’sound of wood’) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel, the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. 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 xylophone may be used generally, to include all such instruments such as the marimba, balafon and even the semantron. However, in the orchestra, the term xylophone refers specifically to a chromatic instrument of somewhat higher pitch range and drier timbre than the marimba, and these two instruments should not be confused. A person who plays the xylophone is known as a xylophonist or simply a xylophone player.^[3]

The term is also popularly used to refer to similar instruments of the lithophone and metallophone types. For example, the Pixiphone and many similar toys described by the makers as xylophones have bars of metal rather than of wood, and so are in organology regarded as glockenspiels rather than as xylophones.

The Golden Age of the Xylophone

“Outro”: Hilton College Competition Marimba Band- own composition

The Musical Fact Of The Week

Question

What is the most popular sing along song?

Answer

The 12 Best Sing-Along Songs

• Dancing Queen – ABBA.
• I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor.
• I Wanna Dance With Somebody – Whitney Houston.
• Love Shack – B52s.
• Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations.
• Hey Jude – The Beatles.
• I Think We’re Alone Now – Tiffany.
• Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey.

Tyros 5 – ABBA – Dancing Queen (Instrumental) Cover

The Foundations /// Build Me Up, Buttercup /// Piano Cover

The Riddle Of The Week

Question

What’s the capital of France?

Answer

The letter “F.”  It’s the only capital letter in France.

The Composer Of The Week

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (/ˈlʊdvɪɡ væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən/ (listen), German: [ˈluːtvɪç fan ˈbeːtˌhoːfn̩] (listen); baptised 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical music repertoire and span the transition from the Classical period to the Romantic era in classical music. His career has conventionally been divided into early, middle, and late periods. His early period, during which he forged his craft, is typically considered to have lasted until 1802. From 1802 to around 1812, his middle period showed an individual development from the styles of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and is sometimes characterized as heroic. During this time, he began to suffer increasingly from deafness. In his late period, from 1812 to 1827, he extended his innovations in musical form and expression.

Beethoven – Für Elise

Beethoven: Minuet in G Major, WoO 10, No. 2