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Genre: Marimba (4-mallet)
# of Players: 1
Level: Medium | Duration: 6:00
Publisher: C. Alan Publications | Copyright: 2020
Download mp3 | Click on images to left for score sample
Before I Sleep is an easy and accessible 4-mallet solo for 4.3 Marimba. It is tailored towards players who have mastered the basic techniques and are ready to take on longer works.
Genre: Marimba (4-mallet) | # of Players: 1
Level: Medium | Duration: 6:00
Instrumentation
Marimba (4.3-octave)
Program Notes
The varied sections of the piece feature different concepts like double lateral and vertical strokes, rolls or single melody lines. Changes in tempo and tone challenge students to expand their musicality. More experienced players will find Before I Sleep to be an expressive and audience-friendly repertoire piece that can be learned quickly. The inspiration for Before I Sleep came from multiple places. I wanted to capture the circling thoughts that sometimes keep us awake at night. We toss them around in our head, aimlessly following the stream of consciousness with only little actual progress made, until we finally drift off to sleep. I also love to write music at night, when the world seems quiet and at peace. It gives me the opportunity to take a step back, to remove myself from everything that kept me busy during the day. This state of mind is reflected in some of the musical ideas as well. Lastly, I drew inspiration from themes of rest and longing found in the poem „Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening“ by Robert Frost. It is the root of the bittersweetness that can also be felt in Before I Sleep.
This four-mallet, unaccompanied marimba solo is a solid work that is about six minutes in length. German composer Daniel Eisenhardt studied percussion with Eckhard Kopetzki, who also sparked his interest in music composition. Eisenhardt has performed as a percussion soloist and in several different chamber music settings in Germany.
“Before I Sleep” takes its compositional motivations from thoughts that circle in our minds before we fall asleep at night. Additionally, Eisenhardt takes his inspiration for this marimba composition from Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Several sections in this accessible audience-friendly work open very simply in the lower register of the marimba — almost like the gentle sound of raindrops. Then there is a faster, more harmonically challenging section, which is reflective of remembering all of the thoughts that one’s mind has experienced before sleep. This section transitions to a beautiful chorale, which sounds modal in its tonal influence. A more emphatic, rhythmic section transitions the listener back to a previously stated section before ending on tranquil arpeggios, which gently slow down to an A-minor cadence. This composition would be appropriate for the younger university student’s recital literature on unaccompanied marimba.
Jim Lambert
PERCUSSIVE NOTES
VOL. 59, NO. 3, JUNE 2021 Jim Lambert on Jun 29th 2022