A general comment about writing for percussion:

Marimba: description

Wooden
bars suspended over resonators.
Panshots
The marimba:
The keyboard:
The low resonators:
The mid resonators:
The high resonators:
Characteristics
Ranges of marimbas:
The low register:
Middle and upper registers:

Marimba: beaters

Use soft mallets on marimba. Do NOT use xylophone beaters.

Marimba mallets:
Rolls:
Using multiple sticks:
Different sticks in different registers:

Marimba: view

The size of the instrument:
Good marimba writing:

Marimba: listen

Low note - hard mallet
Low note - soft mallet
Mid range note - hard mallet
Mid range note - soft mallet
Top note
Glissando up
Glissando down
A passage with hard beaters in the top register
A passage with middle beaters in the middle register
A passage with soft beaters in the lower register



Xylophone: description

A soprano marimba, with harder wooden bars suspended over resonators
A panshot along the xylophone:
History of the xylophone:
Range of the xylophone:
Character of the xylophone:

Xylophone: beaters

Various mallets:

Xylophone: view


Notating xylophone music:

Xylophone: listen

Saint-Saens: 'Fossiles' from 'Le Carnival des Animaux'

The same tune, unaccompanied:
Low register
Mid register
High register

Arpeggio, loud, ascending
Arpeggio, loud, descending
Arpeggio, quiet, ascending
Arpeggio, quiet, descending

'White note' glissando, up
'White note' glissando, down
'Black note' glissando, down
'Black note' glissando, up (and over!)

A roll