XYLOPHONE
A musical instrument in the percussion family, the modern western-style xylophone
consists of bars of rosewood or fibreglass of various lengths that are struck by mallets.
Each bar is tuned to a specific pitch of the musical scale. Some xylophones have a range
of 2 ½ octaves but concert xylophones are usually 3 ½ or 4 octaves. Concert xylophones
have resonators below the bars to enhance the tone and sustain the sound.
By 1830 the xylophone was popularised by a Russian virtuoso called Michael Josef
Gusikov who had made the instrument known through extensive concert tours. His
instrument was the five row ‘continental style’ xylophone made of twenty-eight wooden
bars arranged in semitones in the form of a trapezoid. There were no resonators and it
was played with spoon shaped sticks. Gusikov performed in garden concerts, variety
shows and, as a novelty, at symphony concerts. Composer pianists Chopin, Liszt and
Mendelssohn spoke very highly of Gusikov’s performances.
The xylophone is a precursor to the vibraphone which was developed in the 1930s.
YAMAHA
Yamaha pianos are manufactured by Yamaha Corporation, the world’s largest maker of
musical instruments. The first Yamaha piano was made in 1900.
Sviatoslav Richter performed on Yamaha pianos for more than 25 years.
Glenn Gould used a Yamaha piano in his 1983 re-recording of Bach’s Goldberg
Variations.
At the 12th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow four different piano
manufacturers were featured: Yamaha, Steinway, Kawai and Bechstein. Of the eight
finalists including the winner, Ayako Uehara, four finalists chose the Yamaha CFIIS
Concert grand piano.
ZUMPE
The English fortepiano had a humble origin in the work of Johann Cristoph Zumpe, a
maker who had emigrated from Germany and worked for a while in the workshop of the
great harpsichord maker Burkat Shudi. Starting in the middle to late 1760s, Zumpe made
inexpensive square pianos that had a very simple action, lacking an escapement,
sometimes known as the ‘old man’s head’. Although hardly a technological
advancement in the fortepiano, Zumpe’s instruments proved very popular, they were
imitated outside of England, and played a major role in the displacement of the
harpsichord by the piano. These square pianos were also the medium of the first public
performances on the instrument, notably by Johann Christian Bach.