marimba players?
jnsi...@pas.org
Hi everyone!
I regularly read this list...and was just wondering, DOES ANYONE OUT
THERE PLAY MARIMBA??? - I regularly find the on going "I play these
drums" and tink everytime to myself...how does this benifit me? (to know
what kind of drums YOU play :-) - well, anyways, I'm not trying to stop
any of that...('cause I know it can and will go on forever) but I'd
maybe like to START a topic revolving around marimba (if you're
interested?)
A question I have is, do you compose? know any undescovered works that
maybe you a or a composition major or someone wrote??? I'm always
looking for new music (particularly that which isn't "ou on the market
" - sooo, even if you don't know of any of these, would you post on the
list or e-mail me...who are you? student/teacher/both? performer? in
regard to marimba,
thanks so much!!!
Jon
jnsi...@pas.org
or thesi...@earthlink.net
Tom
In article <tcpnntpd.17.3.1.13...@pas.org>,
<jnsi...@pas.org> wrote:
>
>Hi everyone!
>I regularly read this list...and was just wondering, DOES ANYONE OUT
>THERE PLAY MARIMBA???
There are marimba threads here from time to time.
I play some belafone, but I'm not a schooled player. There are many
traditional West African songs played on belafone. Many of these songs could
be played on marimba, although a typical West African pentatonic scale is
tempered somewhat differently than a pentatonic derived from the standard
European diatonic scale. Hope I'm getting all these terms right.
I've seen Bev Johnson, a Canadian player, play Bach songs on marimba. Many of
the songs and dances only carry several polyphonic voices which can easily be
played on marimba. I don't know if Bev adapts the Bach songs for marimba.
I've also seen Bev play George Crumbe, a contemporary American composer. I
think Crumbe scores specifically for marimba as well as vibraphone.
Tom
CRAIG W. PETERSON
I play percussion in a high school band, so this of course includes
marimba. A friend of mine recently finished performing a piece called
"Raindance". It is a very nice four mallet piece with difficult passages.
It is very impressive.
Thanx
David Peterson
Gideon B Banner
Sure, there's a bunch of marimba players and plenty of marimba music out
there. Your best bet is to go buy an album called _Wind in the Bamboo
Grove_ (I think that's the title) by Evelyn Glennie: you'll find it
probably in the instrumental section of the classical music section in a
music store. She plays mostly marimba on this recording. She plays some
of her own music and a number of pieces by other composers. Her other
albums feature some marimba, but not to the extent that this album does.
She's really just an amazing percussionist, both technically and
musically.
The two composers who have written specifically for marimba that jump to
mind are Minoru Miki and Keiko Abe, both Japanese. If you have any access
to a university music library, try doing a search under the word marimba
and I'm sure you'll find lots of stuff.
Hope this helps-
Gideon Banner
Meg Dedolph
In article <tcpnntpd.17.3.1.13...@pas.org>,
jnsi...@pas.org says...
>
>
>Hi everyone!
>I regularly read this list...and was just wondering, DOES ANYONE OUT
>THERE PLAY MARIMBA???
Yes, absolutely. I've never been much into drumset at all, although I'm
trying to learn some hand drumming these days.
>A question I have is, do you compose? know any undescovered works that
>maybe you a or a composition major or someone wrote??? I'm always
>looking for new music (particularly that which isn't "ou on the market
>" - sooo, even if you don't know of any of these, would you post on the
>list or e-mail me...who are you? student/teacher/both? performer? in
>regard to marimba,
Unfortunately, I don't compose. I wish I did. I've been looking for a
decent jazz theory text that would work for marimba, because that's what
I'd like to learn about, but haven't had much luck with that.
And right now, I'm a newspaper reporter who majored in music in college.
I'm not teaching, but I play in whatever community groups I can.
meg
Tomm Roland
Yes there are a few of us marimbists out here. There just insn't
usually any threads that last for very long that are of concern to us.
I cou;d reccommend several marimba pieces and composeres. E-mail me if
ya want some suggestions.
Tomm Roland
Jerry Summers wrote:
>
> How about posting the suggestions to the group also?
>
> There are probably more than a few of us who skip a lot of the posts but still look eagerly
> for the occasional nugget.
>
> Thanks.
Actually a good place to get a decent list of pieces is in the Steve
Weiss catalog. He is a mail order percussion supplier in Philly and he
has several pieces listed in his catalog. In addition to that stuff it
is fairly common to play older music like bach and Handel on marimba.
Common Bach pieces that are played are the two(?) vioin concertos, six
cello suites, partitias, and lute suites. Most of these transfer very
well without special arranging. The cello suites needt o be played an
octave higher than written and the performer shpould decide on what
notes to roll if any. Bill Moersch has a marimba repretoire guide that
is a great source of info on more advanced pieces, and Thomas(?) Siwe
has a large very general guide to percussion literature that includes
marimba pieces. There is a really great marimba solo writte by a friend
of mine who is finishing his masters in composition that is for marimba
and tape. It would be for upper intermediate to advanced players. Let
me know if anyone wants to contact him for a score.
Mike Puterbaugh
>Sure, there's a bunch of marimba players and plenty of marimba music out
>there. Your best bet is to go buy an album called
>_Wind in the Bamboo Grove_
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Just went to a recital of that piece last night. Simply stunning.
All marimba enthusiasts should check it out.
spiderwoman
On Sun, 2 Mar 1997, Tom wrote:
> I've seen Bev Johnson, a Canadian player, play Bach songs on marimba. Many of
> the songs and dances only carry several polyphonic voices which can easily be
> played on marimba. I don't know if Bev adapts the Bach songs for marimba.
> I've also seen Bev play George Crumbe, a contemporary American composer. I
> think Crumbe scores specifically for marimba as well as vibraphone.
>
> Tom
I have played in an ensemble arrangement for Bach's "spinning song". It
is a fairly elementary. I think it is put out by Rowloff (sp?).
spyde...@aol.com
/ \
'\ \__O__/ /`
`--(_)--'
.---/ \---.
/ /'(>-<)`\ \
` \ `-' / '
spiderwoman ma...@columbia.edu
www.columbia.edu/~mari/laguns
Jeffrey L. Shlosberg
spiderwoman wrote:
> I have played in an ensemble arrangement for Bach's "spinning song". It
> is a fairly elementary. I think it is put out by Rowloff (sp?).
Not to pick nits, but...
I don't think it's Bach's Spinning Song. (Maybe it was Schumann? I can't
recall.) But the confusion comes because Brian Slauson combined the
Spinning Song with a Bach march in a wonderful arrangement (it's on his
disc "Bach on Wood"). This is, perhaps, what your arrangement was taken
from.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey L. Shlosberg
900 E. 79th Street, Suite 301,
Bloomington, MN 55420
"Will Rogers never met Barry Switzer . . ."
----------------------------------------------------------------
Jerry Summers
How about posting the suggestions to the group also?
There are probably more than a few of us who skip a lot of the posts but still look eagerly
for the occasional nugget.
Thanks.
=============================================================
Jerry Summers ag...@lafn.org
I'll defend to the death my God-given right to be totally wrong.
=============================================================
Rock209
Hello,
I studied the instrument for four+ years, and will never tire of it. Even
though I don't play as much anymore (work sucks) I still grab the mallets
every once in a while.
As was suggested a while back, Bach chorales are great for the marimba.
Most have to be slightly re-written for sticking purposes, or for
intervals, but most can be read right from the original music. A copy of
the Bach chorales (there are over 100 of them) can be found most any music
store.
Chopin cello preludes are great, also. Either two or four mallets can be
used for these. Not too technically challenging, but are great for the
instrument, since they tend to cover 3 octaves (like a cello) or more.
They are easy to learn, and are great for warm ups.
Leigh Howard Stevens has also composed great pieces. The first that come
to mind are the Mexican Dances. There are 2 or three of them. They are
technically challenging, but are great show pieces, with a lot of
contrapuntal rhythms and wierd time signatures. The style is alot like
flamenco guitar.
Speaking of which, some guitar work can also be translated to marimba, If
you're lucky enough to have a low E on your instrument. Otherwise,
transposition is necessary. Fernando Sor, Villa-Lobos are two that come
to mind.
For technique, nothing beats etudes from the various orchestral
instruments (violin, cello, viola, trumpet) that are easy to find, but do
require transposition some times.
Of course, Keiko Abe and Minori (sp?) uh.. forgot the last name, (Miki?)
are the giants of Japanese marimba.
Any work by Dave Samuels is good. Check out his albums if you can find
them. There is one particular piece called "Footpaths" that is
incredible. His phrasing and technique are impeccable, and the piece is
also a show-stopper. If you wan't a copy of the music, let me know.
Also, I think the Tchaikovsky (sp) "Album for the Young" is a great set of
work. There are seven individual pieces, that are technical in their own
way, yet short enough to memorize quickly. Great pieces for a recital.
That's all I can remeber off the top of my head. Let me know if anyone
has heard of these pieces, or of any other great pieces.
Best of Luck,
Chris Rock
roc...@aol.com
Hartt School of Music Percussion, 1994
Dandemutan
Jon,
In response to your shout into the canyon -- yes, there are marimba
players out here. I'm part of a strong marimba community here in the
Pacific Northwest that focuses on Zimbabwean music. These ensembles play
music that is loud, complex, and deep, mostly joyous, often deriving from
ancient music that still thrives in contemporary Zimbabwean culture (cf.
Thomas Mapfumo, who plays that same kind of music in an electric mode).
This music contrasts dramatically with the Euro-American marimba tradition
you're probably familiar with.
Zimbabwean marimba has a visceral power that physically pushes you out of
your chair and onto your dancing feet, even when the music is
contemplative or melancholy. The first time I really paid attention to it
I stood right up at the edge of the stage, open-mouthed, and soaked in the
amazing mesmerizing power of the interweaving melodic lines and
interlocking rhythms that billowed from the Anzanga Marimba Ensemble on
the festival stage. I was instantly addicted. Afterward they passed out
fliers for classes and I've never looked back. I've been playing now for
five or six years, and was drawn by the depth of the music to learn to
play the mbira dzavadzimu from which most of my favorite marimba pieces
derive. (The Zimbabwean marimba itself is a modern instrument,
synthesized at a teachers college in the early 1960s as a culturally
neutral tool for teaching the music of the many different cultures in
Zimbabwe. The mbira of the Shona Zezuru has been around for at least a
thousand years.)
The marimbas we play are based on the design brought to the US in the late
60s by Abraham Dumisani Maraire, who came as a visiting artist at the
University of Washington here in Seattle and stuck around for the next
twenty years, teaching marimba and karimba and leading performance
ensembles. Dumi returned to Zimbabwe in 1990 to take a position at the
University of Zimbabwe, but many of his students and their students and
*their* students continue to teach and perform here in North America.
There are dozens of marimba ensembles now in British Columbia, Washington,
Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.
Today our musical influences go well beyond Dumi's own Shona Manyika
culture, and many American and Canadian performers and teachers travel to
Zimbabwe to drink from the source, but a fair amount of Dumi's
compositions and arrangements remain in the communal repertoire. These
days a lot of bands are playing more and more music based on mbira
dzavadzimu songs and are adding mbira to their performances and
recordings, amplifying it to match the naturally loud volume of the
marimbas.
A typical North American Zimbabwean-style marimba ensemble will have three
sopranos (usually played sitting down), two or three tenors, a baritone,
and a bass (played standing on a riser). Hardwoods such as padouk are
used for the higher pitched instruments. The resonator tubes hanging
beneath the notes each have a half-inch hole in the side covered with
plastic; this buzzes when the note is struck, giving the music a warm,
distinctive voice.
We play with one mallet in each hand. The mallet heads are hard rubber,
usually around 90 or 95 durometer for the sopranos and progressively
softer for tenor, baritone, & bass. We're taught to really wail on the
instruments -- keeping a firm grip with the thumb and side of the
forefinger but letting the wrists swing loose, and letting the power of
the stroke come from the wrist rather than so much the arm. I've been
advised to use my strength in pulling the mallet up from the marimba
rather than in swinging it down so that the mallet rings off the notes and
doesn't linger a millisecond longer than necessary. Good players can
really make the instruments sing; novices tend to make duller thudding
tones because their wrists are too stiff and the mallets dampen their own
notes. Marimba notes have to be replaced when the wood fibers become
bashed in by vigorous playing, and every once in a while someone will
crack a note, which is always amusing and impressive (and means a couple
of hours of work for someone to replace it).
I'm just barely starting to get into arranging, but I can venture a few
generalizations about Shona marimba that will apply to at least a few
pieces. Often a song will begin with a soprano and/or a tenor
establishing a seed rhythm and an embryonic melody. After a cycle or two
the other instruments will come in, either one at a time, layering the
rhythmic & melodic complexity, or all at once like a breaker exploding
against the rocks. Often the lead soprano will be the last one in,
triggering a leap in energy. Someone will come in on hosho (a pair of
gnarly maranka gourds each containing a small handful of hard hota seed)
putting down a sharp, cracking pulse that cuts across the marimbas and
sharpens our focus. The music is cyclical, fugue-like, each instrument
taking a different approach to the rhythm and harmony. Some of the parts,
played independently, hardly seem related to the basic song, but when they
interlock a synthesis happens that can be ecstatic to experience
(especially if you're one of the players!). In one of my teachers'
arrangements of Amaxoxo and Taireva, all but two or three instruments will
drop out in different combinations so you can really hear how the various
parts fit together. I love it. It's the next best thing to sex,
especially when you're right in the middle of it, part of it, helping make
it happen. I suspect that this kind of ecstatic ensemble musical
experience is common across all cultures & musical traditions, but it's
definitely there in Zimbabwean marimba.
I'd love to see a Zimbabwean-style band perform at the annual PASIC
gethering and blow people's socks off!
Anyway, enough raving... If you'd like to learn more, please visit my web
site at www.rootsworld.com/rw/dandemutande/ Some of the best examples of
the kind of music I'm talking about have been recorded by Anzanga,
Dandaro, and Boka marimba ensembles.
Warm regards,
Paul Novitski
_________________________
Dandemutande
A resource for Zimbabwean music & culture
1711 East Spruce Street
Seattle WA 98122-5728 USA
phone 1 (206) 323-6592
fax 1 (206) 329-9355
email Dande...@aol.com
web site www.rootsworld.com/rw/dandemutande/
Larry Gale
On 2 Mar 1997, Meg Dedolph wrote:
>
> Unfortunately, I don't compose. I wish I did. I've been looking for a
> decent jazz theory text that would work for marimba, because that's what
> I'd like to learn about, but haven't had much luck with that.
> And right now, I'm a newspaper reporter who majored in music in college.
> I'm not teaching, but I play in whatever community groups I can.
> meg
>
Meg --
There are two method books for vibes that should be fairly
applicable to marimba as well. Unfortunately, I don't have either of
these, and can't vouch for their value, but I've heard good things about
them.
First is Arthur Lipner's "The Vibes Real Book". There's a web
page on it at http://www.malletworks.com/book.html which provides some
information.
Second is Dr. Terry Gunderson's "Guide to Solo Vibraphone". He
has a web page at http://wind.cc/whecn.edu/~gundet/index.html, and you can
even download the table of contents to the book, and several of the
lessons (in Adobe Acrobat format).
I hope those may be of some use to you.
-- Larry
+------------------------------------------------+
+ Larry Gale -- Web Site Manager +
+ Environmental Hazards Assessment Program +
+ Medical University of South Carolina +
+ (803)-727-6459 ga...@musc.edu +
+------------------------------------------------+
mall...@bellatlantic.net
as I know.
Greg Malcangi
There is quite a large repertoire for solo marimba. Evelyn has around
900 pieces in her library for accompanied or unaccompanied solo marimba.
In addition, there are also quite a number of multi-percussion pieces
that include marimba.
Regards,
Greg
**************************************
E V E L Y N G L E N N I E O B E
C E N T R A L O F F I C E
----------------------------
WWW: http://www.evelyn.co.uk/glennie/
**************************************
Michael Brundage
In article <19970303205...@ladder02.news.aol.com>, roc...@aol.com
(Rock209) wrote:
> I studied the instrument for four+ years, and will never tire of it. Even
> every once in a while.
I played for eight years, and ditto, could never tire of it. I still try
out some stickings from time to time, but it's been several years since I
last played -- anyone know how I can get a marimba for $1K or less? :-)
As for music suggestions, I have to agree with the many other posters who
suggested Bach. I found that most arrangements of his work for marimba
specifically were not very good, and had much more luck with arr. for
piano, flute, or violin. Tchaikovsky is also fun, particularly the
Nutcracker suite. Brahm's Hungarian Dance #5, though not especially
challenging, has always been a favorite. Later, when I'm at home and have
them at hand, I'll post references for some pieces I've bought over the
years.
There are also some nice albums out there; of course, there are all the
works by Glennie and Abe; I've also got a couple by Nancy Zimmerman (half
of the Marmolin duo), including _Woodcuts_, 1993 (GM Recordings, Inc.)
which are very enjoyable to listen to.
Finally, as others have noted, there are now Web sites featuring mallet
instruments (a nice change from just a couple of years ago, when there were
none!), including
http://www.evelyn.co.uk/glennie/
http://www.malletworks.com/
http://otto.cmr.fsu.edu/~bula_jo/percussion/index.html
(use your favorite Web search engine to find more)
Cheers,
michael
brun...@ipac.caltech.edu
e...@acsu.buffalo.edu
> A question I have is, do you compose? know any undescovered works that
> maybe you a or a composition major or someone wrote??? I'm always
> looking for new music (particularly that which isn't "ou on the market
> " - sooo, even if you don't know of any of these, would you post on the
> list or e-mail me...who are you? student/teacher/both? performer? in
> regard to marimba,
Don't worry, all the marimba players aren't extinct!!! I'm still there
with you!! I have a friend who composers wonderful pieces for Marimba and
tape.....don't groan, they're great!! (the taped parts are usually
sequenced things...)
Liz
*************************************************************************
you can reach me at..... \|||||/
drum...@webtv.net O @ @ O
Cc:e...@acsu.buffalo.edu | J |
website:members.tripod.com/~drumgrrl/lizdome.html \O/
*****************************************************oOOo********oOOo****
Tomm Roland
Michael Brundage wrote:
>
> I've also got a couple by Nancy Zimmerman (half
> of the Marmolin duo), including _Woodcuts_, 1993 (GM Recordings, Inc.)
> which are very enjoyable to listen to.
You are very correct that Woodcuts is a great album but Nancy's last
name is Zeltsman.
Billy Hulting
Hey,
Can you recommend any recordings of the music you write of?
--
Have Fun,
Billy
http://www.primenet.com/~billyh/
**********************************
"Subvert the Dominant Paradigm"
**********************************
Billy Hulting
Hey,
Tomm Roland wrote:
>
> Yes there are a few of us marimbists out here. There just insn't
> usually any threads that last for very long that are of concern to us.
> I cou;d reccommend several marimba pieces and composeres. E-mail me if
> ya want some suggestions.
Usually the only mallet threads are arguements about which grip is best
literature would be nice.
My two favorite marimba pieces from my college days were the Kurka
Marimba Comcerto and Music of the Spheres by Larry Solomon - it was
commossioned by Karen Ervin-Pershing and is on her Album if you can find
it.
Czachb
I would just like to set the record straight. The Mexican Dances were
written by Gordon Stout and not Leigh Howard Stevens. I know this because
I've studied with Gordon.
Billy Hulting
Hey,
Also - Gordon's name is on the sheet music as composer.
I bet it was fun studying with him.