Deviations (Solo 4-Mallet Marimba)

Originally written for marimba/snare drum soloist & percussion quartet, Deviations for Solo Marimba takes inspiration from some of the composer's favorite works for marimba from composers like Trevino, Burritt, Wu, Sammut and more.

Genre: Marimba (4-mallet) | # of Players: 1
Series: N/A
Level: Medium Advanced | Duration: 7:30

Instrumentation
Marimba (5-octave)

Program Notes
Deviations functions largely as a love letter to some of the literature I performed as a college student. Each section has a hint of a motif from a work I loved, then deviates from it (hence the name) to create something new, modern, and interesting. While the piece isn’t programmatic in the strictest sense, I think it conveys a sort of sense of the melancholy that I felt while writing it, feeling like I was trapped in a degree that I struggled with, but also loved far too much to quit. Maybe Deviations can be a sort of escape for those who perform it, as it was for me while I wrote it.

– R.M.F.