Schuller-Marimbology-M OS - Product Information
Marimbology was written by Gunther Schuller in the summer of 1993 on commission from New Music Marimba, Percussive Arts Society, William Moersch, Robert Van Sice, and Nancy Zeltsman, with a grant from the Meet-the-Composer/Reader's Digest Commissioning Program. The work is in four contrasting movements, exploiting not only the wonderfully rich sonorities of the five-octave marimba, but its remarkable technical/virtuosic and expressive capacities. The opening movement, marked Scherzando, begins with a light trickle of high register sounds (like a tiny high-lying mountain spring), gradually running its course into the lower register, growing dynamically along the way, and eventually evolving into a jaunty scherzo in asymmetrical meters and odd rhythmic patterns. But soon the piece reverses itself, the long downward opening run now heading upwards (like running a film backwards) to a "sudden-death" chordal climax. The second movement, Rhapsody, explores the darker and more harmonic qualities of the marimba. The middle section consists of one-hand tremolo pedal points accompanying the dramatic fanfare-like gestures. The movement ends on a quiet, contemplative note. The ensuing Sarabande is stately in character, closing with a chorale-like passage and a wispy "after-thought." The Finale, Toccata, features a plethora of ragtimey syncopations and jazzy swing. It is a virtuoso tour-de-force which stretches the technical boundaries of marimba playing to its farthest limits.
Number of players - 1
Difficulty - Advanced
Instrumentation - Solo Marimba (4 mallets, 5.0 octave)
Number of players - 1
Difficulty - Advanced
Instrumentation - Solo Marimba (4 mallets, 5.0 octave)
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