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9 Miniatures & a Fantasy (Solo Marimba Collection)

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Genre: Marimba (4-mallet)
# of Players: 1
Level: Medium | Duration: ca. 20:00 total
Publisher: C. Alan Publications | Copyright: 2019

Download mp3 | Click on images to left for score sample

Price:
$30.00
Item #:
26210
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Notes & Instrumentation
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  • Notes & Instrumentation

    9 Miniatures and a Fantasy is a collection of intermediate pieces for solo marimba written with the idea of presenting different technical aspects to the performer in short musical studies.

    Genre: Marimba (4-mallet) | # of Players: 1
    Level: Medium | Duration: ca. 20:00 total

    Instrumentation
    Solo Marimba (4.3-octave)
    * 2 solos use a 4.5-octave marimba, but includes ossia for 4.3-octave

    Program Notes
    9 Miniatures and a Fantasy is a collection of intermediate pieces for solo marimba. I wrote them with the idea of presenting different technical aspects to the performer in short musical studies. As a teacher of percussion at the collegiate level, I have seen the repertoire for the intermediate player improve significantly over the past fifteen years. I particularly enjoy and encourage students to play the intermediate works by Mark Ford, Bart Quartier, Mitchell Peters, and Richard O’Meara. My hope is that 9 Miniatures and a Fantasy will add to this literature in a positive way.

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    1. Percussive Notes New Literature Review

      “9 Miniatures and a Fantasy” is a varied and well-constructed collection of intermediate etudes for solo four-mallet marimba. Each of the nine miniatures is dedicated to developing a particular technical or musical concept such as changing intervals, four-mallet stroke types, polyrhythms, and compound meter.

      Composer Brett Dietz traces the core of many of these miniatures to works by such composers as Michael Burritt, Philip Glass, Mitchell Peters, Paul Smadbeck, and David Stock, and as such these etudes would serve extremely well as a sort of “taste test” for performers interested in devoting their energy to the longer and more involved source material. However, these miniatures are by no means artistic larceny, and the composer has skillfully blended his own original musical ideas with the characteristic technical and stylistic traits of the pieces that inspired this collection.

      Nearly all of the miniatures are less than a minute and a half each, and teachers and students who prefer to tackle technical development through a larger number of small projects, rather than a smaller number of large ones, might find that this collection proves to be a superior option to “Rhythm Song” and other similarly useful-but-lengthy intermediate works. For those seeking a more substantial challenge, the collection’s concluding capstone is its four-minute “Fantasy for Marimba,” which combines techniques and musical material from all nine miniatures into a cohesive and satisfying musical exploration that would be perfectly at home on a college audition program or end-of-semester jury performance, or perhaps even an advanced high school solo-and-ensemble festival program.

      One of the things I appreciate most about this collection is its pedagogical usefulness to a wide range of students. The easily digestible nature of the miniatures, as well as their thoughtful sequencing, perfectly align with the tendency of today’s students to gravitate towards shorter pieces without sacrificing developmental content. Furthermore, the composer’s decision to provide optional parts that allow for the collection to be fully performable on a 4.3-octave instrument will ensure that more students can access this highly effective series.

      I highly recommend this collection to any developing intermediate four-mallet player or their teachers, including high school and college students, and I plan on using the collection myself in some of my own teaching.

      Brian Graiser
      Percussive Notes
      Vol. 59, No. 2, April 2021
      on Jun 16th 2022

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