Meditation

Written to encourage (or elicit a sense of) meditation from audience members, this 8- to 13-minute piece is built almost entirely on overlapping sixteenth-note patterns and improvisatory elements that are played over the top of these looping ideas. With almost all of the notes based on the natural keys of the marimba, and with patterns centered around major seconds, thirds, and perfect fourths, it is easy as an audience member to get “lost” in the aural atmosphere that is created when these pitches blend together, morph, and shift from one pattern to another, and complement each other while creating pulsing harmonies.

From a technical performance standpoint, the actual note playing is not difficult. The entire piece can be played with two mallets, and there is nothing more complex than sixteenth notes at quarter note = 112. The challenge comes when you factor in the electronic prep work required, and the subsequent acoustical/volume balance adaptation that will come in a recital hall, as well as the melodic/pattern improvisation that happens in the middle of the piece.

Having said that, once a performer lives within the compositional and electronic world of this piece for a few practice sessions, it should be very easy to understand the composer’s intent, and equally as easy to put an individual performance stamp on a recital stage.

—Joshua D. Smith
Percussive Notes
Vol. 60, No. 4, August 2022