Tuesday 23 December 2014

ABC Wednesday, X for Xylophone

From 3rd November till 10th November my sister and I stayed in a holiday park in Hoenderloo in the province of Gelderland.
Every day we walked around in this park, looking for toad-stools. Several times we passed this xylophone, which was meant for children to play on.

History

The instrument has obscure, ancient origins. According to Nettl, it originated in southeast Asia and came to Africa c. 500 AD when a group of Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples migrated to Africa. One piece of evidence for this is the similarity between East African xylophone orchestras and Javanese and Balinese gamelan orchestras.

The earliest evidence of a true xylophone is from the 9th century in southeast Asia, while a similar hanging wood instrument--a type of harmonicon--is said to have existed in 2000 BC in what is now part of China, according to the Vienna Symphonic Library. The xylophone-like ranat was used in Hindu regions (kashta tharang). Java and Bali use xylophones (called gambang) in gamelan ensembles. They still have traditional significance in Africa, Malaysia, Melanesia, Indonesia, Thailand, and regions of the Americas. The instrument was imported to South America by Africans, where it developed into the marimba.


We thank Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC, and we must thank Roger too for the weekly job to find  ten bloggers for each of the ABC Team members  to visit and to read their posts. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words   beginning with X!

13 comments:

Kay said...

Are toadstools the same as mushrooms? My children always loved to play on the xylophone.

Dina said...

How nice that they put a xylophone in the park. I'd love to try it.

Merry Christmas to you and your family, Wil!

Miss_Yves said...

Charmante attention pour les enfants!

Roger Owen Green said...

A nifty variation n the kid's toy I know.
ROG, ABCW

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Pretty! .... we saw an outdoor musical instrument something like that in Estes Park Colorado, but it was pipes instead of a xylophone -- and my son and daughter in law played with it (my middle-aged son and dil!).... we are all just kids at heart! It sounded pretty good too.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Merry Christmas! I am sorry for the two comments -- I sent the first before I should have.

Unknown said...

heel even wat dit ook het woord dat ik koos tot ik voor iets anders besloot ;-)

Mooie bijdrage Wil.

Hele fijne dagen gewenst.

Trubes said...

What a fun idea having a xylophone in the park for the children to play!
I too had a xylophone when I was a child,

Have a wonderful Christmas Wil,
Love from,
Di xx

Hazel said...

That's lovely. But I think I would be more interested in looking for toadstools :) Happy Holidays to you.

Anonymous said...

I had a metal xylophone as a kid, loved it, even though I later found out about the authenticity of wood.

Thanks for the research, Wil! I love the idea of an outdoor xylophone that all kids can play. Harks back to a time when it wouldn't get "tagged" with spray paint, which it would here in the US.

Merry Christmas and peace, Amy

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

My daughter played the gamelan when she was young.

I trust u had a great Christmas.

Patty said...

Good afternoon, haven't been here in quite a while. Hoping you and family had a wonderful Christmas. So much seems to have been going on around here since my Mother's accident this past May and her death. Plus as Abe and I both get older, we seem to have more aches, pains and problems. I'm on Facebook everyday, at least for a short period of time, I don't get around to the blogs too often. Here's wishing you a fantastic New Year.

Marja said...

We had one when we were kids I hope you had a lovely christmas Wil. You probably have snow as well so keep warm