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The balofon is a kind of wooden xylophone or percussion idiophone which plays melodic tunes, and usually has between 16 to 27 keys. It has been played in Africa since the 14th century; it originated in Mali, according to the Manding history narrated by the griots. ==History== Believed to have been developed independently of the Southern African and South American instruments now called the marimba, oral histories of the balafon date it to at least the rise of the Mali Empire in the 12th century CE. Balafon is a Manding name, but variations exist across West Africa, including the ''balangi'' in Sierra Leone〔Cootje Van Oven. "Music of Sierra Leone", in ''African Arts'', Vol. 3, No. 4 (Summer, 1970), pp. 20-27+71.〕 and the gyil of the Dagara, Lobi and Gurunsi from Ghana, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Similar instruments are played in parts of Central Africa, with the ancient Kingdom of Kongo denoting the instrument as ''palaku''. Records of the balafon go back to at least the 12th century CE. In 1352 CE, Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta reported the existence of the ngoni and balafon at the court of Malian ruler Mansa Musa. European visitors to West Africa described balafons in the 17th century largely unchanged from the modern instrument. The Atlantic Slave Trade brought some balafon players to the Americas. The ''Virginia Gazette'' records African-Americans playing a ''barrafoo'' in 1776, which appears to be a balafon. Other North American references to these instruments die out by the mid-19th century.〔cited in Dena J. Epstein. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. University of Illinois Press (1977). .〕 The balafon has seen a resurgence since the 1980s in the growth of African Roots Music and World Music. Most famous of these exponents is the Rail Band, led by Salif Keita. Even when not still played, its distinctive sound and traditional style has been exported to western instruments. Maninka from eastern Guinea play a type of guitar music that adapts balafon playing style to the imported instrument. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「balafon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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