Joe Green, age 14, of White Plains, N.Y., for his question:

IS THE XYLOPHONE AN OLD INSTRUMENT?

 The xylophone is a musical percussion instrument that is made up of a series of graduated wooden bars that are struck with mallets to produce sound. The instrument goes back to Southeast Asia in the 14th century where it was a highly developed favorite in percussion orchestras of Indonesia.

The instrument was also found in Africa and was possibly imported there by way of Madagascar. It became a prominent instrument in African music.  Then African slaves introduced the xylophone to Latin America, where  it is known as a marimba    one of its many African names.

The xylophone arrived in Europe about 1500 and took root as a folk instrument in central Europe. By the 19th century Polish and Russian performers had popularized it in western Europe. Its first orchestral use was in 1874 when the French composer Camille Saint Saens used it in his "Danse Macabre."

The simplest African xylophones are a pair of wooden bars laid across the player's legs. The orchestral xylophone has two rows of bars arranged like piano keys.

Xylophonelike instruments with metal bars are called metallophones and include the glockenspiel and the vibraharp.