Stout-Nocturnes Nos. 1-10

A collection of 10 pieces for four mallet marimba, ranging in difficulty from moderate to difficult. My idea with these pieces was to write music for the intermediate marimbist, by limiting myself to two hours to start and finish a composition, thus forcing myself not to write music that was too difficult. I accomplished that goal with the first four Nocturnes before becoming more involved in the compositional process starting with the fifth Nocturne, thus ending up with more difficult compositions. They are mostly based on musical ideas, and thus weren't etudes to develop a specific technique. I didn't want to title them "preludes" (like the Helble compositions), and therefore the use of the word "nocturne" in the title.

-Gordon Stout

Number of Players: 1
Difficulty: Grade 4
Instrumentation:
Player I: Marimba


GORDON STOUT (b.1952) is currently Professor of Percussion at the School of Music, Ithaca College, Ithaca, N.Y. A composer as well as percussionist who specializes on marimba, he has studied composition with Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler and Warren Benson, and percussion with James Salmon and John Beck.As a composer-recitalist he has premiered a number of his original compositions and works by other contemporary composers. Many of his compositions for marimba are published, and have already become standard repertoire for marimbists world-wide. His recordings are devoted not only to his own music, but also that of the general standard repertoire by important American composers.