Palpitations (Marimba Duet)

Palpitations is a challenging marimba duet comprised of sweeping arpeggio passages, groove-centered melodies, and echoing rhythms that work together to create a bigger picture to the listener. With moments of stability and instability, the piece has the opportunity to create a thrilling listening experience to the audience

Genre: Duet for 2 Marimbas | # of Players: 2
Level: Medium Difficult | Duration: 6:45

Instrumentation
Marimba 1 [5.0-octave]
Marimba 2 [5.0-octave]

Program Notes
Palpitations is a challenging marimba duet comprised of sweeping arpeggio passages, groove-centered melodies, and echoing rhythms that work together to create a bigger picture to the listener. I landed on the title Palpitations when writing the beginning section of the piece. Although the music remains in a simple meter, the pulse is felt differently throughout, and the echo effect between the marimbas creates an unsteady feeling that constantly builds and releases tension. The following section of the duet begins much more stable and develops a groovy bassline and melody. As soon as the pulse stabilizes, it is thrown off into odd-meter licks that give the feeling of an entirely new tempo. In the third section of the piece the two players begin to create their own “echo chamber” that develops and expands throughout. When writing this section, I imagined falling asleep listening to a heart monitor, where the imagination would take a single tone and expand on it until it became something different entirely. With moments of stability and instability, Palpitations has the opportunity to create a thrilling listening experience to the audience<./p>

– C.H.