History of the vibraphone

Vibraphone – This is a musical instrument belonging to the class of percussion. It is a large set of plates made of metal, of different diameters, which are located on a trapezoidal frame. The principle of placing the records resembles a piano with white and black keys.

The vibraphone is played with special metal sticks with a non-metallic ball at the end, the hardness of which differs from each other.

It is believed that the world’s first vibraphone sounded at the beginning of the 20th century, namely in 1916. Herman Winterhof, American craftsman from Indianapolis, experimented with a marimba musical instrument and an electric motor. He wanted to achieve a completely new sound. But it was only in 1921 that they succeeded in this. It was then that, for the first time, the well-known musician Louis Frank heard the sound of a new instrument, and immediately fell in love with him. The unnamed instrument at the time helped Louie record “Gypsy Love Song” and “Aloha ‘Oe”. Thanks to these two works, which could be heard on radio stations, in restaurants and other public places, the instrument without a name gained immense fame and popularity. Several companies began to manufacture and produce it at once, and each of them had its own name, some came up with a vibraphone, others vibraharp.

Today, the instrument is called the vibraphone, and is assembled in many countries such as Japan, England, the USA and France.

The vibraphone first sounded in the orchestra in 1930, thanks to the legendary Louis Armstrong, who, having heard the unique sound, could not pass by. Thanks to the orchestra, the first audio recording with the sound of a vibraphone was recorded and registered in a work known to this day called “Memories of you”.

After 1935, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, who played in Armstrong’s orchestra, moved to the well-known jazz group Goodman Jazz Quartet, and introduced jazz players to the vibraphone. It was from this moment that the vibraphone became not only a percussion instrument performed by the orchestra, but also a separate unit in jazz, thanks to the Goodman team. The vibraphone began to be used as a separate sounding musical instrument. At the end of the Second World War, he won the hearts of not only jazz performers, but also listeners, having managed to fully gain a foothold on world stages.

Until 1960, the instrument was played with two sticks with balls at the ends, then, the famous performer Gary Burton decided to experiment, he began to play with four instead of two. After using four sticks, the history of the vibraphone began to change before our eyes, as if new life was breathed into the instrument, it sounded with new notes, became more intense and interesting in performance. Using this method, it was possible to play not only a light melody, but also put whole chords.

In modern history, the vibraphone is considered a multi-faceted instrument. Today, performers are able to play it with six sticks at the same time.