Hi,
I have recently been asked to write a piece for marimba - however, I am neither a percussionist nor have I ever written anything for solo percussion before! So I was just wondering if someone could please check over a passage for me that I think is a little suspect, (i.e. I have a feeling that it is insanely difficult :-)) before I give it to the performer (I shan't be seeing him in a while so I can't check with him first). I have uploaded graphical versions of the pages in question to 
and 
. The speed is crotchet=210. For anyone with Sibelius, I've also uploaded the sib file to http://web.ukonline.co.uk/jonathandodd/mechanica.sib.
Thanks very much for any help!
Jon
Hi Jon,
I'm assuming that the upper staff is the marimba part and the low perhaps piano? Nothing on the upper staff looks out of place on the marimba, but my one comment would be that "splitting" the right and left hand parts in this manner makes the score unpleasant to read... In fact it is better to not allocate "right and left" sticking in this manner... I would present the line together on the same staff and allow the performer to work out the "obvious" sticking pattern... However I will add that it makes total sense to allocate clearly separate lines where each hand is working separately from the other...
Please take the time to check out some existing marimba pieces... I would recommend "Time" by Minoru Miki and The collection of "Rotations" by Eric Sammut... Simply because they have contrasting content... "Time" was written by a "real" composer who worked closely with a marimbist and the Rotations were written by a marimbist who composes good marimba pieces... "Time" has been presented quite freely on the page, although it is clear that the composer understood the instrument's parameters at the time... The "Rotations" are very idiomatic and the exact physical intention has been laid out on the page...
Good luck and have fun!!!
Hi Jon,
I agree with Thomas. Splitting up the part into two staves is not neccessary if they are both in treble clef. It should be the performer's discression as to the sticking that they should use. So I would just minimalize that into one staff.
I think the exceprt is not "insanely difficult" as you had stated. A marimbist should be able to play the piano part (that's piano right?) with no problems. As of now, the piece is scored for a marimbist with two mallets. We can hold four. So if you want to make the marimba part come out more, feel free to add more notes, or to maybe have the part done in octaves. It would make the piece more appealing, that is unless you wanted it that way.
Here is an articel to read regarding composing for the marimba: http://www.nancyzeltsman.com/memo.htm.
Good luck!
~Behzad
