The development of the marimba has been shaped over several centuries and by dozens of cultures. Scholars suggest that the marimba began simply as a set of wooden bars laid over a hole on the ground and struck with sticks. The Zulus (of South Africa) have a myth about the goddess "Marimba" who made an instrument by hanging gourds below wooden bars. Perhaps this is the source of the name of the instrument?

In the early 16th-century, the marimba was brought to South America by African slaves. There, a Guatemalan named Sebastian Hurtado made a marimba with wooden resonator pipes instead of gourds. This formed the basis of the modern marimba. Eventually, the marimba was brought to the United States and manufactured around 1910. The Deagan Company of Chicago altered the design by using metal resonators instead of wood. Numerous other alterations were made including the rearrangement of the keyboard to match the black and white key format of the piano. In the 1920s and 30s, the marimba could be found in homes throughout America and rivaled the piano as the family instrument. Marimba orchestras were formed during this time to perform orchestral transcriptions.

After WWII, the Japanese embraced the marimba and greatly expanded its repertoire with a host of composers writing new works specifically for the marimbist Keiko Abe. Today, the marimba is known widely as the jewel in the crown of the percussion family of instruments.

The unique sound of the marimba is determined by the shape of the bars, the tuning of the bars, the resonators, and the mallets used to strike the bars. First, marimba bars are often made of rosewood and--unlike the bars of its cousin the xylophone--are longer and wider, with an arch-shaped cut on the underside. Second, the tuning of the bars--a very mysterious process that is initiated by tuning "gurus" aided by new computer technology--has a great impact on the tone of the bar. The third factor involves resonators, which are used not to prolong, but to strengthen the sound of the bars. Finally, the the selection of mallets to be used is an issue that is often neglected, but is tantamount in understanding and creating the marimba's unique range of timbres.

The marimba you will hear in the CrossSound concerts was made by the Adams Company of the Netherlands. It has a Honduran rosewood keyboard, metal resonators and is the largest marimba made today at 5 octaves: C2 - C7. Tuning is A=442 hz.

Text courtesy of Paul Cox - Assistant Curator of Musical Arts, The Cleveland Museum of Art