Glass marimba

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The glass marimba is a crystallophone that is similar to the marimba, but has bars of glass instead of wood. The bars, which the performer strikes with padded mallets, are perched on a glass box to provide the necessary resonance. Glass marimbas are utilised by the Brazilian percussion ensemble, Uakti.

[edit] Construction

The Glass Marimba is an instrument made of plate glass bars resting on a clear acrylic glass resonator box. The thickness and length of each bar determines the pitch. The longer and thinner a bar is - the lower its pitch will be. The tuning of the this particular marimba is reminiscent of the sounds of Indonesian Gamelan music. The other marimbas in the ensemble have different tunings.