marimba
mar-RIM-bah
[English]
1. Percussion instrument of African and Latin American origin. It consists of a row of chromatically tuned wooden bars, arranged in the manner of a piano keyboard. The bars are supported by a wooden frame over resonator tubes and they are sounded by being struck with mallets. The modern marimba is a mellower version of the xylophone. Versions of the marimba can have a range of up to seven octaves, but the modern standard is four octaves (C3 to C7) or four-and-a-third octaves (A2 to C7). Notes played on the marimba sound in the same octave as the written notation.
2. A regional term for the African mbira.
Example
See Also
[Bantu] mbira[Bantu] kalimba
[Bantu] likembe
[Bantu] marimbula
[Bantu] sansa
[Bantu] sanza
[English] finger harp
[English] gourd piano
[English] thumb piano
[Swahili] ikembe
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Last Updated: 2016-06-05 14:15:13