Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra.

Abstract

Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra is a twenty-two minute work cast in a traditional three movement concerto form. The basic harmonic/melodic materials are hexads and complementary hexads built on intervallic projections as propounded in Howard Hanson's Harmonic Materials of Modern Music. The opening movement is in double exposition form with a cadenza before the recapitulation. Marimba techniques used in the opening movement include chromatic thirty-second notes, mirrored octaves and single hand alternate sticking patterns. The form of the second movement is a rondo song form: a- b- a (inversion)- b (inversion)- c- c (retrograde)- b (retrograde-inversion)- a. The marimba plays rolled chords throughout much of the movement. The form of the third movement is a fast sonata-rondo form: a - b - a - development - b - a - coda. The development section of this final movement develops materials from both of the preceding movements and thus creates a cyclic form for the work. Marimba techniques explored in the third movement include dead strokes, octave dead strokes alternating with rolled octaves and, thirty-second note hexad patterns in fast alternation with the orchestra. This movement also contains sections in which the xylophone plays in duet with the marimba. Some of the compositional techniques used in the Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra include rhythmic modulation, augmentation, diminution, ostinato, inversion, retrograde, mirroring, odd meters, fragmentation, parallel motion, contrary motion, African rhythmic structure, harmonization with complementary sets and register sweeps.