Name given to an instrument of the Xylophone family with a compass sufficiently large to embrace the low-sounding bars of the Marimba and the highest-sounding bars of the xylophone (it is classified as an idiophone: set of percussion plaques). The normal compass of the xylorimba is five octaves: C to c''''. As the marimba-xylophone it was a popular instrument in the 1920s and 30s, particularly in vaudeville. The lower notes of the xylorimba sound more like a xylophone than a marimba on account of the bars being thicker and narrower than those of a modern marimba (the bars of the xylophone and the marimba are shaped differently to emphasize different overtones; see Acoustics, §V, 2).
The terms have been a source of confusion. Many composers have called for ‘xylorimba’, including Berg (Three Orchestral Pieces, op.6, 1914–15), Boulez (e.g. Le marteau sans maître, 1953–5, rev. 1957) and Messiaen, but invariably the parts were written for a four-octave xylophone. Stravinsky’s The Flood (1961–2) includes a part for ‘marimba-xylophone’, but a marimba was intended. The parts in Roberto Gerhard’s Hymnody (1963; with two players at one instrument) were originally labelled ‘xylorimba’, but this was later changed to ‘marimba’. Boulez wrote for two true xylorimbas (each of five octaves) in Pli selon pli (1957–62); the parts have sometimes been played on two xylophones and two marimbas.
JAMES BLADES/JAMES HOLLAND