Marimbaphone

The marimbaphone is an obsolete tuned percussion instrument, developed by J. C. Deagan, Inc., of Chicago, Illinois, in the early 20th century.

Its timbre was similar to the celesta, and it was used mainly by marimba bands and as a solo instrument by stage artists.

To further facilitate bowing, the ends of its bars were shaped to be concave rather than flat.

A single marimbaphone could be played by more than one performer, allowing both techniques to be used simultaneously.

[1] Although the instrument has been comparatively little used in art music (Percy Grainger was one of only a few composers ever to call for it), the name is mistakenly written in many scores intending the use of the ordinary marimba rather than the marimbaphone.