Re: Xylophone

[Paul M. Gifford <PGIFFORD...>]

Ernie Gruner / Cathy Dowden <erniegru (at) mira(dot)net> wrote:

> ps any other information/history about this odd instrument? tuning?
> 
I can't think of the person's name right now, but in an 1857 book in 
French on Polish music (can't recall author's name either), there is 
a description of a Lithuanian Pole who gave concert tours, playing 
polonaises, etc., on the "wood harmonica".  He lived at St. 
Petersburg.  The author claimed that Guzikov was inspired to play it 
from hearing him (this player was active in the 1820s).

The Holzerne G'laechter was used by German minstrels in the 16th-17th 
centuries.  A picture in K. Klier, _Volksinstrumenten in den Alpen_ 
shows two rows.

A player named Janos Balogh recorded several sides in 1906 in 
Budapest for Gramophone on the xylophone or *facimbalom*; this is
laid out in three rows with the same tuning as the Hungarian cimbalom.

Paul Gifford