Marimba - a love affair?

[ardcarp]

Are all serious percussionists smitten by the marimba? Don't get me wrong. It's a lovely piece of kit and has a very seductive sound. It just seems that most percussion recitals are dominated by it.

I went to one last night (billed as a recital for percussion and piano). The marimba was up front, and all the other kitchen stuff ....the side-drums, cymbals, wood-blocks, temple bells, even a vibraphone....was in the background. There were several kids at the concert, clearly all dying for some stuff to be hit...hard. But the entire programme (bar one item) was played on the marimba; the Zalupe Dance and arrangements of Scott Joplin, a Bach Violin Concerto and the entire Carnival of the Animals. The 'bar one' item was the second movement of Dave Maric's Predicaments, a real tour de force on all the other kit. But the first movement? You've guessed. Marimba!

Any reason why this instrument has become so overwhelmingly dominant in the percussion world?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh, don't get me started!!


Too late ...

Yes, a fine instrument, providing essential timbre in the combined hands and mind of a good composer and player - but totally ruined for me by its obligatory, ubiqutous doodlings in every BBC documentary, no matter what the subject. The history of the Louvre? Doodly-dop-dop, doodly-dop-dop as we look at an Egyptian sculpture! The Hundred Years War? Bi-pom Pom-bi-dom doodah diddle-diddle, Bi-pom Pom-bi-dom doodah diddle-diddle as we get close-ups of a sculpture of Joan of Arc! David Attenborough? Pop-a-di, Dom di-diddle-daddle as a Hippopotamus bathes in mud! The background to the current Economic crisis? Dooo-dah di-di da-da, Dooo-dah di-di da-da as we're shown archive film of Maynard Keynes!

FOR THE LOVE OF BACH, PLEASE SHUT UP!!!!!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

There!


I feel better now.

[amateur51]

Oh, don't get me started!!


Too late ...

Yes, a fine instrument, providing essential timbre in the combined hands and mind of a good composer and player - but totally ruined for me by its obligatory, ubiqutous doodlings in every BBC documentary, no matter what the subject. The history of the Louvre? Doodly-dop-dop, doodly-dop-dop as we look at an Egyptian sculpture! The Hundred Years War? Bi-pom Pom-bi-dom doodah diddle-diddle, Bi-pom Pom-bi-dom doodah diddle-diddle as we get close-ups of a sculpture of Joan of Arc! David Attenborough? Pop-a-di, Dom di-diddle-daddle as a Hippopotamus bathes in mud! The background to the current Economic crisis? Dooo-dah di-di da-da, Dooo-dah di-di da-da as we're shown archive film of Maynard Keynes!

FOR THE LOVE OF BACH, PLEASE SHUT UP!!!!!

Revealed at last, the unanticipated joys of 55 years of tinnitus and significant hearling loss

It must be hell, ferney

[MrGongGong]

There!


I feel better now.

So I guess you wont want this then ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQObpr3_6J8

(I left it as a link to preserve your sanity )

Harry knew how to make one though




As you say all "Serious" percussionists
I wonder what the frivolous ones are smitten by ?

Vibraslap ? Flexatone ?

Though I guess most "serious" percussionists are smitten by porterage

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Revealed at last, the unanticipated joys of 55 years of tinnitus and significant hearling loss

It must be hell, ferney

Thanks, ami; 55 years of tinnitus seems particularly cruel.

Best Wishes.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So I guess you wont want this then ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQObpr3_6J8

(I left it as a link to preserve your sanity )

I used to quite like that piece!

[Flay]

Or maybe Nagoya Marimbas?

This version is at double-speed so your torment should be shorter!

[amateur51]

Thanks, ami; 55 years of tinnitus seems particularly cruel.

Best Wishes.

Not really because I know no better - it's only when people with good hearing point out things that I'm missing that it impinges, and in this case it might be a plus

[Simon B]

Though I guess most "serious" percussionists are smitten by porterage

Backache, more like. Unless they're among the few who are so serious, and with such magnificent porterage rates, that unlike their frivolous/bluffing/amateur counterparts they're able to outsource their spine crunching toil to someone else.

Jealousy is more-or-less defined for me by watching, say, Wieland Welzel finish another luxuriously remunerated BPO concert, pack up his sticks in about 30 seconds and then immediately wander offstage to spend some of the proceeds while someone else collapses a few (more) vertebrae lugging his ten-tonne timps offstage. Mind you, he is... fairly good.

Meanwhile, back with the marimba, I think the reason is simply that of the standard tuned instruments it offers the fullest sound (cf simple power), range of timbre, ability to be (almost) a sustaining instrument one moment and have percussive attack another etc. Range, on several axes, is the short summary. Also, once you've bought one of the things (think £WHAT???!!), not to mention spent ages lugging the many bits it comes into in and out of vans and repeatedly (dis)assembling it, you'll have probably already decided that it'll do, and to skip the three octaves of roto-toms in the other HGV!