Mallet Percussion

Basic Mallet Info

• First fully developed xylophone dates to 3500 BCE
• Variations appeared in Africa and Asia in 1300s
• Africans changed name to marimba
• Slave trade transported marimba to Latin America
• First appearance in European orchestras in 1874

In general, mallet percussion instruments are chromatically tuned bars, either metal or wood, strung over a frame. Each bar has a sealed resonator tube under it to allow for amplification and resonance. They are played with mallets--wooden rods with a plastic or rubber ball on the end and sometimes covered in yarn.

Vibes and Glockenspiel

The vibraphone (or vibes) is very popular in jazz music. Percussionists playing this instrument will play a variety of parts, including both melody and chords. It is commonly played with 4 mallets, two in each hand. The instrument itself works by striking the tuned aluminum bars, or keys, with mallets; the sound then reverberates through resonator tubes which are equipped with motorized butterfly valves, rotating disks that close and open the tubes. This creates a vibrato effect in the sound when played. If a player uses the sustaining pedal, the sound will resonate longer than if the pedal is up.

The glockenspiel, or bells, is often used in marching or military bands but can be found in all forms of music. It has metal tone bars that are much higher in pitch than many of members of the mallet family, producing a clear, bright, bell tone. Usually harder mallets are used to strike each bar.


Marimba
The marimba was born when its precursor, the xylophone, was brought to Africa and the Americas. It has tone bars made of rosewood which is found in the tropical rain forests common in those parts of the globe. Due to the shortage of such wood in present day, fiberglass alternatives are being used in conservation efforts. Originally introduced in North America in 1908, the marimba has 4-5 octaves of keys and is sometimes played by 3-5 people at a time.

Xylophone
This instrument, the most well known of mallet percussion, is named for the Greek words "xylon," which means wood, and "phone," which means sound. The major differences between the xylophone and other mallet percussion are that the wooden bars produce a short sound, hard mallets are used, and they are rarely used as a solo instrument. In its early years, the xylophone was merely two wooden bars placed across a players lap. Since then, it has developed into a frame-mounted instrument with connections to music, especially the ethnic genre, across the globe.
A very popular and good example of xylophone playing is in Saint-Saen's Carnival of the Animals, in the movement entitled "Fossils." The xylophone is the featured instrument in this part of the work.



Indonesian Gamelan
A traditional gamelan is a sort of percussion ensemble, including both pitched mallet instruments and other non-pitched members of the percussion family. The ensemble includes metallophones (metal bars laid in single row and struck like a glockenspiel), xylophones (gambang; with wooden bars instead of metal), drums, gongs, and sometimes bamboo flutes, strings, and vocalists.