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

Kulintang a Kayo, a Philippine xylophone

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!