Marimbaphone

The marimbaphone is a tuned percussion instrument. It was developed by the Deagan company in the early 20th century.

There were two types of marimbaphone produced: one with wooden bars (called wooden marimbaphone) and another with steel bars (called steel marimbaphone). Of these, the steel marimbaphone is much better known and more instruments of this type survive to the present day.

In addition to being played with mallets in the conventional way (as in the playing of a marimba or vibraphone), the steel marimbaphone was designed so that its bars could be rotated from a horizontal position to a vertical position, allowing them to more easily be played with a bow. To further facilitate bowing, the ends of its bars were concave rather than flat. A single marimbaphone could be played by more than one performer, allowing both techniques to be used simultaneously.

Although the instrument has been comparatively little used, some composers of contemporary classical music have called for it, and some performers continue to use it.

External links

• Deagan Steel Marimbaphone exhibit from Percussive Arts Society Museum site