-The Origins and Devolopment of the Marimba in Chiapas
Guatemalan author David Vela devotes a section of his book, Information on the Marimba (1958), to the Chiapan marimba tradition. After several anecdotal and folkloric accounts of the marimba in southern Mexico, he cities some serious scholarship from Eduardo J.Selvas (1957) and Henrietta Yurchenro (1943). He also goes on to cite Selvas who stated that the marimba was brought to Chiapas from Africa and was composed of sixteen to twenty-one sonorous planks that were suspended in some manner. Selvas identifies the original scale as diatonic, broadening in time to the chromatic scale. Before the chromatic pitches were added to the instrument, however, semitones were obtained by attaching small balls of beeswax to the bottom of the bars. The instrument was situated on three legs and played by two to four individuals.