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Midnight Moon
This solo, four-mallet marimba work will challenge advanced high school or undergraduate students. The piece opens with a haunting lullaby that explores harmonic language over a slow melody. It requires ripples and an ease of moving big distances on the instrument. This section is very sparse in notes, leaving space for the harmonies to sit on the listener’s ear.
The middle section is faster, centered on an ostinato that changes with the harmonies as the melodic material is brought out through tenuto accent markings. The player will need to be very adept at bringing out melodic material in the faster moving notes, and have a firm grasp of the four-mallet techniques required. The piece ends with a return to the opening lullaby material, coming full circle back to the haunting sounds.
This work would go well in the middle of a recital — a chance for the audience to sit back and reflect. The composer mentions that the piece was written during a “trying time” in his life, and the music definitely has this dark hopefulness to it, as if trying to find the light in the darkness.
—Josh Armstrong
Percussive Notes
Vol. 58, No. 1, February 2020
This solo, four-mallet marimba work will challenge advanced high school or undergraduate students. The piece opens with a haunting lullaby that explores harmonic language over a slow melody. It requires ripples and an ease of moving big distances on the instrument. This section is very sparse in notes, leaving space for the harmonies to sit on the listener’s ear.
The middle section is faster, centered on an ostinato that changes with the harmonies as the melodic material is brought out through tenuto accent markings. The player will need to be very adept at bringing out melodic material in the faster moving notes, and have a firm grasp of the four-mallet techniques required. The piece ends with a return to the opening lullaby material, coming full circle back to the haunting sounds.
This work would go well in the middle of a recital — a chance for the audience to sit back and reflect. The composer mentions that the piece was written during a “trying time” in his life, and the music definitely has this dark hopefulness to it, as if trying to find the light in the darkness.
—Josh Armstrong
Percussive Notes
Vol. 58, No. 1, February 2020
