This arrangement by
Eric Rath of one of the world’s most famous hymns is heavily influenced by the great jazz artists who have made vibraphone their own means of music-making. While the melody is always present, the arrangement uses various forms of accompaniment and frequent use of mallet-dampening, making this a great solo piece for vibraphone!
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This arrangement of the famous hymn will please your jazz audience first and your church audience second. The melody is definitely present but it takes a while to get to it, and when the accompaniment kicks in, it really kicks in; fast scalar lines and jazzy chords will really mess with traditional churchgoers.
Eric Rath notates the melody clearly by using a double treble clef with the melody on top and the accompaniment, in the form of ascending and descending scalar lines, on the bottom. It looks easy to distinguish between the two on the page, but the performance of such a distinction is more difficult than it looks. There is some mallet dampening notated but no pedal indications. I recommend that someone who knows something about vibraphone technique take this on rather than a newbie, due to some of the specific indications, but it is not beyond the reach of an intermediate player. An advanced player could learn this fairly quickly for a wedding or church gig.
With a gaggle of college sophomores working on vibraphone right now, this will probably get programmed at my university soon. This piece won’t take long to learn, includes some good pedagogical moments on mallet dampening and pedaling, is familiar to everyone but not necessarily predictable in its arrangement, and is something that Mom will probably love—all pluses in my book.
—Julia Gaines
Percussive Notes
Vol. 51, No. 6, November 2013
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Amazing Grace (Newton - solo version) (Download)
