Does every school have a xylophone?
Has every school pupil played the xylophone at least once? The answer must surely be yes to both those questions and yet very few people realise the instrument originally came from Africa. The word xylo-phone means wooden-sound and the first xylophones played in Europe were actually imported from Africa almost 700 years ago.
Listen to this clip from Fossils, perhaps the most famous piece of xylophone music. (Fossils is just one piece from The Carnival of Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns.)
Watch
David Corkhill of the Philharmonia Orchestra describes the early Xylophones imported into Europe in this video clip>>.
Find Out More
You can learn more about the xylophone and its South American relative, the marimba by visiting the percussion section, Pitched Wood.
Alternatively, you could find out more about instruments from South America.
