Term for a group of idiophones, some of which are plucked (lamellophones) and some of which are struck (xylophones). In parts of eastern and southern Africa, it may denote either type of instrument. In Latin America, it is mostly used for the calabash-resonated xylophone introduced from Africa, but in 19th-century Brazil it also applied to calabash-resonated lamellophones of African origin, and in Colombia it is used generically to denote any melodic instruments other than aerophones (see List, 1968). The name is now almost universally applied to the commercially manufactured, fully resonated orchestral xylophone developed from Latin American models. For full classification details, see Idiophone; for marimba lamellophones, see Lamellophone, §2(i). See also Xylophone, §§3 and 5 and Vibraphone.
Trough-resonated xylophones are called marimba among the Zaramo on the Tanzanian coast near Dar es Salaam (Hyslop, 1974), as are similar instruments recorded by Hugh Tracey in Zanzibar. Lamellophones, which were a 19th-century import into central Tanzania from the Congo through the Bagamoyo–Kijiji caravan trade route, came to be called marimba madogo (‘small xylophone(s)’) in Kiswahili.
The term marimba (fig.1) is composed of the word stem -rimba (or -limba) and the prefix ma-, expressing an accumulation of objects. Accordingly, the stem alone, limba, is used in southern Malawi, eastern Zambia and parts of central Mozambique to denote a single-note xylophone. In the Zambezi valley, large lamellophones with up to 36 notes, played by Phodzo (Podzo), Dzimba and other musicians, are often called malimba (‘l’ and ‘r’ are one phoneme in many Bantu languages and are therefore interchangeable). The geographical distribution of the word stems -rimba and -limba with a variety of prefixes covers most of South-east Africa, with extensions into southern Tanzania and northern Angola, where xylophones are called madimba among the Mbondo of Malanji province.
In the 16th and 17th centuries Portuguese travellers, traders and administrators adopted the term from Bantu language speakers in South-east Africa and introduced it in their territories, notably in Brazil, where slaves recruited from South-east and Central African areas began to reconstruct musical instruments from their home countries. On his journey to northern Brazil in 1783 to 1792, Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira reported a 16-note lamellophone, found with a slave who most certainly came from south-western Angola, under the designation ‘marimba, instrumento que tocão os Prétos’. The same term has survived until today for a gourd-resonated xylophone used at Bairro de São Francisco, Municipio de São Sebastião, in the State of São Paulo (Setti, 1994).
With the reconstruction of Central African and South-east African xylophone models by slaves in various New World places, the term marimba became a generic label for such instruments in New World countries, such as Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala (fig.2) and Panama, continuing long after these instruments had migrated into Amerindian cultures, notably in Guatemala, Nicaragua and other countries of Central America. In Cuba, xylophones did not establish a foothold, but a large box-resonated lamellophone was developed, most probably from (smaller) eastern Nigerian and southern Cameroonian models. A new term, marimbula, emerged through addition of the (Spanish) suffix -ula, and these lamellophones rapidly spread across the Caribbean during the first decades of the 20th century.
With the original meanings of the word marimba now largely forgotten in New World places, the name came to be used in the 20th century for other New World instruments of African origin as well. In Colombia, George List (1966) reported the application of the name marimba in particular for a type of mouth-bow that clearly has roots in the Bight of Biafra (an area extending from eastern Nigeria to Gabon).
During the first half of the 20th century, European musicologists used the term marimba as a general name for African and New World gourd- or bamboo-tube resonated xylophones but never for lamellophones, which they incorrectly called ‘sanza’. Later research has clarified the term's etymology, its geographical distribution in Africa and the history of its introduction into Central and South America.
The manufacture of the modern marimba (fig.3) as used in the orchestra began in the USA in 1910, the earliest experiments being made by J.C. Deagan and U.G. Leedy. Stopped metal tubes graduated in length served as resonators, and for very deep notes were made U-shaped. A vibrating membrane (mirliton) feature, which is found on some African and Latin American instruments, was used in certain early models (e.g. the nadimba). Later experiments included the octarimba (obsolete) in which two narrow bars an octave apart in pitch were arranged side by side, the octaves being struck simultaneously by fork beaters. The marimba became a popular instrument in vaudeville and light ensembles. It was considerably enhanced by Clair Omar Musser, virtuoso and composer, who gave a memorable concert with his 100-piece marimba band in 1935 at Carnegie Hall in New York.
With the exception of Percy Grainger, who scored for the marimba and nadimba in the suite In a Nutshell (1916), serious composers neglected the marimba until after World War II. Milhaud’s Concerto for marimba and vibraphone (1947), in which the technique of four-hammer playing was exploited, was one of the first postwar compositions to make extensive use of the marimba. The instrument is being increasingly used in the large orchestra. It occurs in Richard Rodney Bennett’s First Symphony (1965), K.A. Hartmann’s Eighth Symphony (1960–62; which includes cadenzas for two marimbas), Messiaen’s Chronochromie (1959–60) and Carl Orff’s Antigonae (1941–9). Concertos for marimba and orchestra have been written by several composers, including Robert Kurka, James Basta and Paul Creston. Composers who have written music for solo marimba include Mitchell Peters (Yellow After the Sun), Gordon Stout (Two Mexican Dances, 1977), Paul Smadbeck (Rhythm Song, 1991), Keiko Abe (Michi, 1979, Variations on Japanese Childrens’ Songs) and Minoru Miki (Marimba Supirichuaru, 1989).
The last quarter of the 20th century saw the development of a vastly enlarged repertory involving the adoption of revolutionary new playing techniques and various improvements to the marimba including the adoption of a greater range. The original four-mallet technique for bar percussion instruments was designed to facilitate the playing of chords. The ‘traditional grip’, as it is known, has the shafts of the mallets crossed in the palm of the hand, with the outside shaft under the inside and between the first and second fingers, and the inside mallet under the thumb, and the thumb and first finger controlling the interval that is played. The ‘traditional grip’ has given way to: (1) the ‘Burton grip’ (after the jazz vibraphone virtuoso Gary Burton), in which the shafts are crossed in the palm of the hand with the outside shaft on top of the inside, and the grip has an axle pivot principal with the third and fourth fingers controlling the size of the interval; (2) the ‘Musser’ grip (named after Clair Omar Musser), in which the mallets are not crossed but the inside mallet is controlled by the first and second fingers, the outside by the third and fourth fingers; and (3) a variant of the latter developed by the marimba virtuoso Leigh Howard Stevens, which he describes as a ‘child of Musser grip’.
Marimbas today are found in a variety of sizes. The standard ‘concert grand’ of four and a third octaves is still available, but new solo marimba repertory requires instruments of five octaves, C–c''''. Hard mallets should not be used, particularly on the lower register, as they will easily crack the bars and in any case rob the instrument of its characteristic mellow tone quality. Music for the instrument is written (at actual pitch) in treble or bass clef, or sometimes on a double staff. The so-called ‘steel marimba’, manufactured from 1916 by the Leedy Drum Co., is in fact a vibraphone. An instrument that combines characteristics of both xylophone and marimba is variously called xylo-marimba, marimba-xylophone and Xylorimba.
Harry Partch constructed five tuned idiophones, four of which form a family based on the traditional marimba principle: the Diamond Marimba (1946), the Quadrangularis Reversum (1965), the Bass Marimba (1950, revised 1960), and the Marimba Eroica (1951 and 1954). (For further details, see GroveI, ‘Marimba’, §3; R. Roberts.)
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GERHARD KUBIK (1), JAMES BLADES/JAMES HOLLAND (2)