At my high school senior recital at interochen I was originally planning on playing Marimba Spiritual with three other percussionist! but unfortunately it is 15 minutes and is not going to fit in the program time limits.
Is it Ok to play just the fast section?? or would that take away from the full effect of the piece??
Or do you know any other intense, in your face, exciting peices with percussion accompaniment under ten minutes????
I would greatly appreciate your help !
Most Sincerley
Sean Ritenauer
IAA
Sean,
It is perfectly fine to play the fast part of marimba spiritual only, it has even been recorded just this way. And seeing that the first part of the piece (marimba solo) doesn't really have a lot to do thematically with the marimba/percussion part, it makes sense to perform just this part. Crowd loves it too.
Be nice to your percussionists and photocopy or something so they have their parts by themselves, I have played a perc part from the score and it's a pain with all the page turns.
I'm not a fan of Marimba Spiritual, though. I much prefer 'Uneven souls' by Zivkovic. It's quite long, too, but you could play in a similar fashion from the groove part halfway through to the end. Marimba spiritual is just bigger faster louder. Uneven souls is a much more layered piece, and therefore more exciting.
Evan
If you are concerned about whether or not it is OK just to play the fast part of Marimba Spiritual, why don't you ask the composer himself? You can contact him by going to his website www.m-miki.com, click on the English pages (icon is on upper right-hand side of Japanese pages), go to the bottom of the homepage and click on the email shortcut.
Alan Zimmerman
yeah what's up there Sean,
what needs to go down is you have some hip cat cruz out rollin via a 64 Chev with the wheels all jacked up so it's all bounce'n like a foo yo. And then that dude starts free styln' as you crank that D, the parallel 4ths that follow need to have pyrotechnique triggers on them so that the stage lights up when you tag em.
peace yo
Sean,
Are you pretty much set on doing Marimba Spiritual? Since that is such a piece that is played so much, you might think about doing a piece that would be new to some listeners. Have you heard Andy Harnsberger's VERTIGO? It's a pretty hip piece. I have not seen the music, but it's defintiely got some chops and notes in it so preparation would not be short by anymeans. Just a thought for you though. Good Luck,
Ben
Sean,
I highly reccomend Takayoshi Yoshioka's "Three Dances" for solo marimba and 4 percussion. If you're looking for a truely great closer, the third movement is INTENSE!!
Best,
CJT
