I know there are posts on here asking what each one's favorite pieces are. I am curious to know what are some really good "tonally" orinted pieces are. So much of modern marimba rep these days is blocked chords or just a sprawl of stuff all over the place. What's out there that has a solid melody line or good harmonization, it has a sense of flow and direction.

-rhythm song
-anything by bach

Christopher Deane's Process of Invention has all of the above. It's a little long, but it uses every second wisely in its development and is a wonder to listen to and fun to play. Feels great once you finally get it right...:)

Mexican Dance no. 2 by stout. For sure. Number one is the "famous" one from what I gather, but number 2 is much more of a piece of repertoire to my mind. That's my fave. Gordon Stout also suggests altering the voicing and execution of the ending (as long as you retain the V-I movement) Listen to David Hall's cut of Mex Dance 2 (on his CD Saudacao) for a really cool little ending riff, sort of the five octave marimba ending. Lots of room in this piece for imaginative playing, as well as crowd pleasing.

A few of my favorite "largely tonal" marimba pieces are My Lady White by David Maslanka, Four Pieces for Marimba by Martin Elster, and several of the pieces by Ney Rosauro. These works have a tonal basis, but tend to stray 'out there.' Most modern works are not strictly tonal, and not just the ones for marimba. There however exist many pieces that have been transcribed for and work quite well on marimba. These include the Schumann and Tschaikowsky Albums for the Young, quite a bit of Bach, and many of the transcriptions by Rebecca Kite.

-Michael

"virginia tate" "rythm song" by paul smadbeck, "two mexican dances" by gordon stout, keiko abe works for solo marimba, "rotations" by eric sammut, "katamiya" by emmanuel sejourn