The History of Marimba
Introduction
The Marimba in its simplest form originated among primitive men long
ago. It was one of the earliest melodic instruments made by man and references
suggest it was widespread throughout Asia and Africa. Though many countries
claim it to have originated in their country there is no evidence to prove the exact
location of its first arrival.
The instrument is known by various names and has different physical
characteristics depending upon the country or region it comes from. To better
understand its development throughout history, we must look at the people and
cultures that have made it part of their tradition.
The origin of the marimba is uncertain; some believe that it had originated in
Southeast Asia in the 14th Century, and others that it came from Africa. The
instrument was brought to South America in the early 16th Century by either
African slaves or by pre-Columbian African contact.
The marimba is an idiophone that is sounded by striking wooden bars with a
mallet. Its name is derived from Bantú, a language in which rimba suggests a
"flattish object sticking out" such as a note or key, and ma is a cumulative prefix;
thus, marimba is equivalent to many keys.5
In Guatemala, the word marimba means “the wood that sings”
This too is a type
of xylophone with resonators underneath the different-sized wooden keys which
are struck with mallets.
According to Nadel
, the name marimba signifies the gourd xylophone of Africa.
The gourd is used as a resonator creating longer tones. There are territories
where unresonated xylophones are also called marimbas and the name
“marimba” can be applied to instruments of the sana type (mbira).
The word is also related to a number of words in Bantu languages, all referring
either to a xylophone or to some other musical instrument, such as one of the
various types of lamellophone, or mbira. In the Bantu language, the words
marimba, mbira, or even likembe are all considered variants of a common word
root. Among the various names for xylophone in Bantu speaking African region
one finds, besides the marimba, silimba or sirimba, timbila, andamadimba, or
madimba.
It is not possible to say precisely from which African xylophone type or from
which region of Africa the Mexican/Central American marimba may have
originated, the linguistic evidence suggests that the name marimba is of African,
specifically Bantu, origin is conclusive. It should also be noted that names for the
xylophone that sound like marimba are more common in Central, East, and
South Africa than in West Africa.
Since large numbers of Africans were brought as a labor force to Central
America, parts of Mexico and the Pacific Coast. These slaves formed along with
the Indians, the basic labor force of the coastal areas of Central America. It is
possible and most likely that in some coastal area the idea, form, and structure of
the African marimba was transmitted to the Indians of the region.
It is clear that
the instrument spread effectively among the Indians of the entire region of
Central America to Guatemala and Chiapas, with its greatest development
probably occurring in Guatemala. However, since it is impossible to know
precisely from which region of Africa the marimba came to America, or precisely
to which region of America it was first introduced, it is also impossible to have
any idea of how the first marimba music of America might have been played and
whether any African musical influences might have been transferred along with
the instrument itself. Although there are a number of regions on the coast of
Central America where the marimba might have been introduced from Africa, one
possibility might have been Guanacaste, a long coastal area in the northwest
region of Costa Rica that extends along the southwestern region of neighboring
Nicaragua, the area around the city of Masaya.
There is historical evidence of the existence of African slaves as part of the labor
force in this region and perhaps more important, marimbas with calabash
resonators and the strip of wood used as a brace or handle are still to be found
extensively throughout this region. Although the existence of this evidence for
Masaya and Guanacaste does not rule out the possibility of the introduction of
the marimba at some point of coastal Central America, the area of Nicaragua and
Costa Rica does represent a distinct possibility. From such a potential point of
contact the African marimba might have been passed along from one Indian
group to another until it finally reached the highlands of Guatemala. What is
important to note is the fact that the marimbas played in the highlands of
Guatemala, as well as those found in southwestern Nicaragua and northwestern
Costa Rica, “still have today the strongest structural similarities to the African
xylophones”.
Origin
The original wooden instrument had a leg comprised of one, two or three
rough slabs of wood, disconnected and of different pitch’s.
The wood was laid
across the legs of a musician seated on the ground. The strip (leg) of wood often
comes from a long straight branch of a tree and serves a number of functions. It
can form a brace for the instrument, with the strip of wood placed on a stump of
wood and the player sitting on both while hooking his legs inside the strip and
thereby balancing and stabilizing the instrument as he plays.
The strip of wood
can also be used to hold the instrument from the waist when it is played from a
standing position or serve as a convenient handle when carrying the instrument.
The early marimbas were made of wooden bars or keys, with resonating gourds
suspended below. Each gourd was individually tuned to the primary pitch of its
corresponding key. The gourd was interiorly fitted with a mirliton or natural
membrane (tripa de puerco) which created the buzzing or reverberating sound
for which the marimba is known. These traditional marimbas are still made in
rural villages, mainly in Africa, Guatemala and Mexico.
The sound of the early instrument varies depending upon where it was made
as the materials that make the resonated sound are of different sizes and
composition. The pitch of the wooden bars is governed by several factors. Firstly,
the material (type of wood), its length, width and dept all determine the timbre of
the instrument. For example, if a wooden bar is thinned (sanded down) in the
center in the shape of an arch, the pitch will become lower. The more wood that
is filed away from the middle of the bar, the lower the pitch will be. There are no
tuning systems across cultural borders. Each system is designed by its creator
and most are determined by the region they come from but over all, the
instrument design and keys are similar in many countries.
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