Marimba Pop (for solo marimba)by Paul SanGregory Marimba Solo - Digital Sheet Music

Product Description

This is a set of light and "accessible" pieces for solo marimba. The original plan was to compose short and easy pieces that could be used for warming up or for teaching, each one developing a simple idea in a traditional way. As they evolved, though, more difficult rhythms and techniques began emerging. Rather than limiting musical possibilities, these were incorporated into the pieces. The result is still light and accessible music, but some places are more challenging to perform than was originally planned.


I: Moss on the Marimba
This piece is a slow and warm song for marimba. The overall effect is lyrical and pleasant.

II: Bat Flight
Though the rhythmic inspiration for this piece comes from 1970s progressive rock, the light-hearted personality is nothing like that style. It is made of an ostinato whose number of notes keeps changing with a syncopated rhythm placed in different relationships against it. This is the most challenging piece to play in the set.

III: 33 (for Sansan)
This piece was originally a piano solo composed in memory of my late wife, Sansan Chien. At the request of Kevin Romanski, I adapted it for marimba. It is called 33 because "Sansan" sounds like 33, in Mandarin Chinese. The piece is filled with musical relationships involving 3 and 33 as well as various multiples of those numbers.

IV: All Aflutter
Similar to "Bat Flight", this piece is essentially about rhythm. Here, a simple two-note gesture is developed into a dialogue between the players two hands, with occasional longer strings of notes added for contrast. Changing meters give the music a sense of excitement and unpredictability.

Complete performance duration ca. 12.5 minutes.

(NOTE: the sample recording only includes "Moss on the Marimba" and "All Aflutter")

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