Concert Marimba for Evelyn Glennie
These are some very hastily taken photos of the construction of a Concert Marimba, made in the style of an African xylophone: i.e. with mirlitons (buzzers) and calabash (gourd) resonators. Commissioned by world famous percussionist Evelyn Glennie.
As you walk into the workshop the concert marimba takes up most of the floor space. The bars are made of Honduran Rosewood with partials tuned to the double octave. The resonators are calabashes with coopered Cedar of Lebanon tubes. The frame is made of oak. The overall dimensions are 10 feet long by 42 inches wide at the bass end and 22 inches at the treble end. It stands 24 inches high. The frame is made in two halves, split at the central leg. It has 53 bars and the range is C2 (65.4 Hz) to E6 (1318.5 Hz). You can see some small calabash on the floor on the right and some larger ones piled up at the far end.
Viewed from the other end, you can see the scale of it with some resonators balanced on top. Here's another view
The gourds will be fitted under the bars as shown here
Note the coopered tube on the right of the picture.
The gourds have been shipped, by air freight, from Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso
and the United States. Here they are spilling out
onto the table tennis table they are also stored in bags all around the
workshop.
The largest one is 14 inches in diameter with a four inch diameter coopered tube inserted; overall length about 20 inches. The smallest is about 2 inches in diameter.
The pictures below show a method of bar suspension (red string) and isolation (red rubber). The bars will all be strung together.
The slotted tops of the supports allow the bars to be removed easily.
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The finished intrument.
