Re: Vibraphone/xylophone/marimba in Klezmer music

[Alex Jacobowitz <alexbjacobowitz...>]

> 
> > I've noticed that, especially when I listen to
> vintage Klezmer recordings, 
> > that there is a malleted instrument that is a
> Vibraphone/xylophone/marimba, 
> > probably a marimba.
> > 

B"H Jerusalem

Most likely a xylophone, since marimbas were
relatively new commercially, and primitive at the
time.

Xylophones were used extensively in recordings
(particularly ragtime) since the early 1920's, since
recording technology could much more easily reproduce
the percussive attack. By comparison, strings
(which used vibrato, and were relatively difficult
to reproduce at the time), and quieter instruments
like tsimbel were being phased out.

However, strangely enough, Yiddish speakers up 
to the 1980's were still calling the xylophone
a "tsimbel" - kind of a generic term for keyboard
instruments in folk and other circles.

My six cents to the half-tone,

Alex


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