Octabones, for two marimbas - Adi Morag

"Octabones", an intentional misspelling of the word, "octatones", referring to the octatonic scale this work is based on.

One of my percussion friends showed me to this and I fell in love with it. We considered learning it, but he moved off to Philly and his marimba was only a 4-octave, anyways. This work is written for two 5-octave marimbas and a hoard of solid mallet technique.

[A] section, mostly chordal with intermittent scale runs.

section, a new theme: A Bb C C# C Bb A. This is soon modulated. Then we hear some sustained/tremolo writing appear. This will be used later and serves as a transition into...

[C] section, gets softer, very sustained, beautiful choral tremolo writing. A very haunting soundscape, gives me the chills every time. There's a brief pause at 4:10, and the main theme of this section is stated directly over top of a simple accompaniment. The intensity builds very gradually. Then a new section suddenly crops up.

[D], a very quirky rhythmical section using almost entirely the shafts of the mallets instead of the yarn heads, an extended technique resulting in a very dry, clackedy tone. This is interrupted frequently by ferocious interjections on the yarns of the mallets.

[A'] RECAPITULATION. A new theme is actually introduced in this section. Scale runs still punctuate throughout. Intensity builds, the B motif appears a few times, notably at the very very end before the last chord.

A thrilling piece that really illustrates almost ALL of the possibilities of marimba writing, from loud chordal writing, fast scale runs to occasional appeggiated motifs, glissandi, extended techniques, and soft, tremolando chordal writing. Also, if you watch closely, you'll notice that the placement of the marimbas to each other allow the performers to use the marimba OPPOSITE of them to strike notes out of reach on their OWN marimba. If you want to write for the marimba but don't know where to start, keep your eyes on those mallets, Get an idea of what's actually going on in there. You may take note of the occasional mallet changes that go on throughout the piece, sometimes one hand at a time while the other tremolos - a useful tool for incorporating mallet changes in your marimba writing if done intelligently.

Enjoy, show all your friends! :hippie:

Octabones - PercaDu

Thank you for posting this video. Really really good stuff.

Oooh. I like!

Yes very cool...

There is a clear motif from the Shostakovich Symphony No.10 2nd mov Allegro.

I saw once a video of a work for 4 marimbas called "hook" by some guy named "Graham Fitkin" does anybody know about it ?