Xylophone

The Xylophone consists of wooden bars of various lengths that are arranged according to their pitch in scales, very similar to the keys of a piano. Additionally, the modern orchestra xylophone has resonator tubes for each bar, at a range of four octaves. Compared to the Marimbaphone, the xylophone has a higher (and narrower) range and its bars are made of a harder wood, resulting in a brighter and more penetrating timbre. In orchestral arrangements, the xylophone commonly emphasizes certain parts of a melodic line in forte or fortissimo. The instrument was played with different mallets: soft, medium, and hard plastic mallets, wood mallets, yarn-wound mallets and cluster mallets.