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Wooden Storybook
Ten easy to intermediate concert pieces for two-mallet marimba with piano
Level: Medium
Personnel: 2 players
State Lists: Texas | Florida
Pages: 46
Release Date: 2019
Product ID : TSPB-45
Description
Wooden Storybook is a collection of ten modern and charming performance pieces for solo two-mallet marimba and piano at varying levels of difficulty. Composer Sam Gevers has created pieces that not only paint a picture and tell a musical story, but also develop musicality, creativity, and technique for mallet players from beginner to intermediate ability levels.
All marimba parts are written for two mallets and may be performed on a four-octave marimba.
While these pieces were written for two players (marimba and piano), they may be practiced and performed by a marimba soloist using the provided piano accompaniment audio tracks.
Included in this collection:
March of the Peacock | Med-Easy | 1:05
Sien | Med-Easy | 1:00
Free Hugs | Med-Easy | 2:10
Catching Snowflakes | Med-Easy | 1:30
Jolly Babushka | Medium | 1:30
Summer It Is | Medium | 1:25
Obscure Night | Med-Easy | 2:25
Into the Clouds | Medium | 2:10
Tap by Tap | Medium | 2:50
Deebadoo-Wah | Medium | 2:25
Wooden Storybook comes as a full, spiral-bound book with a color cover and includes an online download code to access individual parts for printing, reference audio, and audio accompaniment.
Instrumentation
- Marimba (4-octave)
- Piano*
* If a pianist isn’t available, these pieces can be played with the included piano accompaniment audio files.
Reviews
Sam Gevers’ new collection of solos for two-mallet marimba with piano accompaniment adds to the repertoire for developing percussionists, filling in the gaps between simple two-mallet melodies and performing full-scale musical works with accompaniment. Along with a full score and marimba part, Tapspace includes a helpful link to download accompaniment tracks with which a marimbist can rehearse and per- form.
With ten progressively more challenging solos to choose from, performers and teachers can find their favorites within this various assortment. “Obscure Night” is one of my favorites, written in E minor but taking advantage of intentional dissonances to help create a darker mood. Similar to other solos in the book, it is written in ternary form. The return of the original melody helps to create an overall musical arc while also not requiring the performer to learn many more notes.
If you listen to the tracks online, check out the last four solos before you write off the book as too simple or basic. The final solos are consider- ably more advanced harmonically and rhythmically, making for much more exciting pieces to play for a developing student. For example, “Tap by Tap” starts out with a repeating D ostinato that quickly expands into a driving D Dorian melody with syncopated accents. The piece also explores a variety of timbres, including the use of the wooden side of the piano as well as the wooden side of a marimba or a woodblock.
Overall, Wooden Storybook provides an excellent resource of solo material for the developing two-mallet player. With the included piano accompaniment tracks, students do not need an accompanist, but they could also play along with a pianist to develop that skill. Each marimba solo relies heavily on the accompaniment to fill space and provide harmonic motion, so I do not recommend performing the solos without at least a backing track. If you are a high school or middle school instructor putting together a studio recital, this collection supplies a fairly diverse selection of musical works that students and audiences will enjoy.
—Matthew Geiger
Percussive Notes
Vol. 58, No. 2, April 2020
Description
Wooden Storybook is a collection of ten modern and charming performance pieces for solo two-mallet marimba and piano at varying levels of difficulty. Composer Sam Gevers has created pieces that not only paint a picture and tell a musical story, but also develop musicality, creativity, and technique for mallet players from beginner to intermediate ability levels.
All marimba parts are written for two mallets and may be performed on a four-octave marimba.
While these pieces were written for two players (marimba and piano), they may be practiced and performed by a marimba soloist using the provided piano accompaniment audio tracks.
Included in this collection:
March of the Peacock | Med-Easy | 1:05
Sien | Med-Easy | 1:00
Free Hugs | Med-Easy | 2:10
Catching Snowflakes | Med-Easy | 1:30
Jolly Babushka | Medium | 1:30
Summer It Is | Medium | 1:25
Obscure Night | Med-Easy | 2:25
Into the Clouds | Medium | 2:10
Tap by Tap | Medium | 2:50
Deebadoo-Wah | Medium | 2:25
Wooden Storybook comes as a full, spiral-bound book with a color cover and includes an online download code to access individual parts for printing, reference audio, and audio accompaniment.
Instrumentation
- Marimba (4-octave)
- Piano*
* If a pianist isn’t available, these pieces can be played with the included piano accompaniment audio files.
Reviews
Sam Gevers’ new collection of solos for two-mallet marimba with piano accompaniment adds to the repertoire for developing percussionists, filling in the gaps between simple two-mallet melodies and performing full-scale musical works with accompaniment. Along with a full score and marimba part, Tapspace includes a helpful link to download accompaniment tracks with which a marimbist can rehearse and per- form.
With ten progressively more challenging solos to choose from, performers and teachers can find their favorites within this various assortment. “Obscure Night” is one of my favorites, written in E minor but taking advantage of intentional dissonances to help create a darker mood. Similar to other solos in the book, it is written in ternary form. The return of the original melody helps to create an overall musical arc while also not requiring the performer to learn many more notes.
If you listen to the tracks online, check out the last four solos before you write off the book as too simple or basic. The final solos are consider- ably more advanced harmonically and rhythmically, making for much more exciting pieces to play for a developing student. For example, “Tap by Tap” starts out with a repeating D ostinato that quickly expands into a driving D Dorian melody with syncopated accents. The piece also explores a variety of timbres, including the use of the wooden side of the piano as well as the wooden side of a marimba or a woodblock.
Overall, Wooden Storybook provides an excellent resource of solo material for the developing two-mallet player. With the included piano accompaniment tracks, students do not need an accompanist, but they could also play along with a pianist to develop that skill. Each marimba solo relies heavily on the accompaniment to fill space and provide harmonic motion, so I do not recommend performing the solos without at least a backing track. If you are a high school or middle school instructor putting together a studio recital, this collection supplies a fairly diverse selection of musical works that students and audiences will enjoy.
—Matthew Geiger
Percussive Notes
Vol. 58, No. 2, April 2020
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