# Works for Vibraphone or Marimba



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I love the timbre of both the vibraphone and marimba. Whether a work is written for just these instruments (solo or multiple instruments) or simply includes vibraphones or marimbas, I'm drawn to the sound and want to explore the work. Some examples of works I like are:

Reich: Mallet Quartet for 2 marimbas and 2 vibraphones.
Reich: Sextet
Glass: Aguas da Amazonia
Boulez's Sur Incises - A work for 3 pianos, 3 harps, and 3 mallet instruments.

The first three are minimalist as one would expect, and the Boulez work derives from a shorter piano work (Incises). The link to the Boulez is the first part of a video where Boulez explains the work in pieces as the ensemble plays it.

I'd love others to share works for these instruments (or similar ones) or any thoughts on the timbre of these wonderful instruments.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

*Boulez*'s _Le marteau sans maître_ has great parts for vibraphone and xylorimba. The second movement, for example: 



*Ligeti*'s _Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedűvel_, for mezzo-soprano and percussion ensemble:


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Lots of works by Boulez's teacher *Messiaen* include parts for one or both:
_Trois petites liturgies_




_Turangalila Symphonie_


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Minuro Miki's Marimba Spiritual is fab, as are many of the works that Keiko Abe has premièred, many Japanese. Her complete discography is a virtual heaven if You dig Marimba.

Unfortunately most of the Marimba Spiritual clips I find on YouTube have such a repulsive sound quality that I decided against posting a clip!

/ptr


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

A little work I love: Alec Wilder- Suite for flute and marimba

The quality of the audio is not the best, but you can hear it here. 
http://wilderworld.podomatic.com/entry/index/2007-01-31T02_03_21-08_00


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Wat??? Nobody menshun dat Morton Feldman???
Gotta correct dat!
His music is BYOO-TEE-FUL. 


Durations 4, for *vibraphone*, violin, and cello (1961)
Durations 5, for horn, *vibraphone*, harp, piano or celesta, violin, and cello (1961) 




Samoa, for flute, horn, trumpet, trombone, harp, *vibraphone*, piano, and cello (1968) 




Samuel Beckett, Words and Music, for 2 flutes, *vibraphone*, piano, violin, viola, and cello (1987) 




Intervals, for bass-baritone, trombone, percussion, *vibraphone*, and cello (1961)
Arrangement of Weill/Brecht Alabama Song, for bass, voice ad lib, 2 saxophones, trumpet, trombone, *marimba*, and piano (1984)
For Stefan Wolpe, for choir and 2 *vibraphones* (1986)


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will start working my way through them. Might take awhile given all the other music on my "To hear" list.

I have heard the Messiaen works. Turangalila Symphonie is an odd work for me. There are parts I don't seem to "get" at all, but there are other parts that are absolutely wonderful (more of the wonderful than otherwise).


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Here in Dark Africa, classical composers are about as common as hen's teeth. The ones we do have seem to like the marimba:






Indeed a very nice instrument, capable of all manner of richly atmospheric effects that one would not have expected.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

brianvds said:


> Here in Dark Africa, classical composers are about as common as hen's teeth. The ones we do have seem to like the marimba


That reminds me, Kevin Volans - She who sleeps with a small blanket features some (very soft) marimba in the end!






Go Africa!

/ptr


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

Peter Maxwell DAVIES' _Ave Maris Stella_ (1975) is my favorite marimba work and the one Davies work that I return to often. It was composed for a so-called "Pierrot" ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin/viola, cello, piano, and percussion (marimba in this case) -- the same ensemble required for Schoenberg's _Pierrot Lunaire_. The matrix of phrases from which the work derives undergoes a clever systematic metamorphosis, yielding music that subtly but constantly shifts and evolves as it goes. It's a ticklish work, requiring unflagging concentration from the performers to maintain its tenuous beauty and generate its eerie medieval religious atmosphere. There's a long marimba cadenza at work's center.

A description of the work can be found at the composer's Web site: http://www.maxopus.com/work_detail.aspx?key=40

I used to favor the crisp, clean, taut performance by the New York New Music Ensemble [GM], but I soon shifted my favor to the somewhat shiftier, shadier performance by The Fires of London [Unicorn-Kanchana]. The Fires produce broad, earthy, plaintive instrumental timbres and tend to lurk in the shadows of the nether dynamics like lepers on a sunny day, whereas the New Yorkers produce clean, bright timbres and are more apt to frolic in the light of day. If the playing of The Fires is less bold and conspicuously virtuosic than that of the New Yorkers, it has a sneakier, savvier, more hard-won character that I like. Differences between the ensembles are exemplified by the playing of the marimba players: the New Yorkers' Daniel Druckman is a bold, dynamic player whose playing is marked by tremendous snap and exactitude; The Fires' Gregory Knowles is a more insidiously seductive and suggestive sort of player whose playing has a subtly shifting shades-of-gray quality about it. So while Druckman immediately grabs you by the collar, Knowles gradually seduces you. (The newish Gemini account on Metier isn't so good, being short on poetry and atmosphere and inner tension and long on dull, deliberate marimba playing.)

Davies wrote a companion piece to _Ave Maris Stella_ in 1982 titled _Image, Reflection, Shadow_; it features similar forces, but marimba is replaced by cimbalom and the music is generally more upbeat and outgoing. I don't like the work as much as I like _Ave Maris Stella_, but it makes for a good coupling on the Fires of London disc.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

aleazk said:


> *Ligeti*'s _Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedűvel_, for mezzo-soprano and percussion ensemble:


Ack! You beat me to it. I love this piece. It's short but packed with the diversity, creativity and power one would expect from Ligeti. Also, the order of the songs works remarkably well.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Australia's *Nigel Westlake* did a work called Kalabash (for two marimbas with four players), influenced by West African version of the marimba. I reviewed it here on a disc of his music. The Synergy Percussion group plays and has commissioned much of this type of modern percussion music.

The disc with music played by *Evelyn Glennie *is also great (pic below), its got marimba concertos by *Ney Rosauro *and *Akira Miyoshi*. The former with these Latin American beats and the latter with the feel of Asian music.

I don't know if these are possible to get for people though, their availability, but I liked these pieces.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

*Messiaen* - _Un Sourire_:


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Darius Milhaud's Concerto for Marimba, Vibraphone, and Orchestra


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