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West Side Suite

John Serry

There are many works composed for marimba that are extremely awkward for the performer, if not downright impossible for the marimbist to perform in real time.  West Side Suite is merely profoundly difficult.  In my opinion, it is at the outer limits of what can be played on the instrument, but ironically, it is completely idiomatic.  One of the reasons for that is that John Serry was a percussion classmate of mine at the Eastman School of Music.  He is intimately familiar with the marimba and knows how to make it sparkle with a big, concert hall filling sound.

 

I love all the underlying musical magic of West Side Story.  But what John Serry has managed to create on top of those giant Bernstein shoulders, is equally amazing.  While not the most overtly virtuosic, my favorite movement is the Passacaglia.  It fully explores what the marimba can do with polyphonic music:  distinct timbres in each voice (produced by holding different types of mallets in each of the four positions), poly-rhythmic "4 against 3 swing," and a sophisticated harmonic treatment, outdone only by the fifth movement's treatment of "Somewhere." 

- LHS

Additional notes by John Serry available with free download.

Prelude (4:46) - Prologue; Jets' Song

Passagaglia (3:38) - One Hand, One Heart

Impromptu (2:13) - Maria; Dance at the Gym

Perpetual Motion (3:54) - Tonight; America

Chorale (5:38) - Somewhere

Prelude - West Side Suite
00:00 / 00:43
Passacaglia - West Side Suite
00:00 / 00:44
WSS_03_Impromptu_Excerpt
00:00 / 00:45

Mini Suite III, BWV 1009   Prélude, Sarabande, Allemande

J. S. Bach, trans. Stevens

I put together this selection of movements from Bach’s third suite for Violoncello solo, BWV 1009, in a kind of “concession” to modern times.  Decades ago, I used to open my recitals with a complete Bach Sonata or Partita, which could be challenging, especially for those attending a solo marimba recital for the first time.  This “Mini-Suite” (three movements of the C-Major Cello Suite) takes about twelve minutes, which fits nicely into any full recital program of mixed repertoire.   

The marimba is a superb instrument for the performance of polyphonic baroque music.  Not only is the ring of a marimba bar similar to a lute, the range of the modern marimba happens to start on the same bottom pitch as the cello.  Coincidence . . . or destiny?  It’s not much of a stretch to say that if Bach had heard a modern, “well-tempered marimba,” he might have composed music for it.


            - LHS

Prelude - Mini Suite III, BWV 1009
00:00 / 00:19
Allemande - Mini Suite III, BWV 1009
00:00 / 00:19

Bach on Marimba

J. S. Bach, trans. Stevens

Available as sheet music, PDF, and recording

"His devotion to both the music and his instrument suffuses every note with the passion of dedication. This remarkably faithful transcription takes us beyond a merely technical interest in Stevens' facility on the marimba to a renewed appreciation for the universality of Bach's music. The marimba delineates harmonic and contrapuntal details that the solo violin can only hint at. And Stevens lights an energetic fire worthy of Heifetz or Milstein in the "Presto" of the A Minor Sonata.

            - Thomas Vernier, Digital Audio

"In the Bach recital by the 35-year-old American marimbist Leigh Howard Stevens, any feeling that this is repertoire intended for other media (harpsichord or clavichord, lute church choir, or unaccompanied violin) is quickly dispelled by the sheer musicality of the playing.  And, in fact, so far as Stevens's consummate technique is concerned, after hearing just a few of the pieces in this collection, one no longer even thinks of possible technical limitations for the instrument, or, for that matter, of the idea of transcription itself.  There is a superb sense of forward momentum in these performances, as well as an awareness of the tension in Bach's writing and an understanding of how to relax when that tension is dissipated.  These are most persuasive renditions, quite riveting in their impact, and the sound of the marimba has been most effectively captured." 

            - Igor Kipnis, Stereophile

Chorale: Christ lag in Todesbanden

(Reimenschneider #371)

Prelude and Fugue in B flat Major

W. T. C. Volume I, No. 21

Preludium in G Minor

(Original:  Preludium in C minor for Lute)

Two part Inventions

No. 1 in C Major
No. 4 in D Minor
No. 8 in F Major
No. 14 in B flat Major

Sonata in A Minor, BWV 1001

(Original:  Sonata in G minor for Violin)

Sonata in B Minor, BWV 1003

(Original:  Sonata in A Minor for Violin)

Prelude and Fugue in C Major

W. T. C. Volume I, No. 1

(Sheet music not available for this title)

Leigh plays Bach on Mba005.jpg
Two-Part Inventions - In D Minor
00:00 / 00:21
Prelude and Fugue in B flat Major - Prelude
00:00 / 00:37
Two Part Inventions - In F Major
00:00 / 00:23

Marimba When... The Great Albums For The Young

trans. Stevens

Available as sheet music, PDF, and recording

Many great composers have written miniature works for piano that were intended for young players.  While some of these pieces seem to deal with child-like musical ideas and sentiments, others are quite adult in their musical and emotional content. This genre of music is particularly well-suited for the marimba for reasons of texture and range.   

 

Many “adult” keyboard works have thick textures that often contain chords of eight or ten notes sounded simultaneously.  When these textures are scaled down for the four or six mallets a marimbist can handle, much of the massiveness of texture is lost.  In contrast to this, the albums for the young are written with smaller hands in mind, frequently in a four-voiced texture -- perfect for an exact transcription to marimba.  

 

In their large scale works, composers frequently use the entire seven-plus octave range of the piano for dramatic effect.  When transposed to the marimba's four and a half octave range, some of the color of the these extremes is lost.  Fortunately for players and listeners alike, the albums for the young usually fit perfectly in the marimba's range. The use of various mallet types adds dramatically contrasting colors, unavailable on the piano, and the addition of sustaining techniques can add a true legato to certain movements.

- LHS

“Any feeling that this is repertoire intended for other media is quickly dispelled by the sheer musicality of the playing.”

- Igor Kipnis, Stereophile Magazine

Volume 1

Volume 11

Children's Corner - Debussy

Album contains 32 distinct movements and over 60 minutes of music.

Album For The Young, Op. 68 - Schumann

Album For The Young, Op. 39 - Tschaikovsky

The Adventures of Ivan - Khatchaturian

Golliwog's Cakewalk - Debussy
00:00 / 00:32
The New Doll - Tchaikovsky
00:00 / 00:23
Knecht Ruprecht - Schumann
00:00 / 00:20
Ivan is Very Busy - Khatchaturian
00:00 / 00:28

Preludes For Marimba

William Penn

One of the early pieces I commissioned, while still a student at The Eastman School of Music, was from William Penn, who was on the Eastman composition and theory faculty at that time. This was a period of great experimentation for me: one-handed rolls, separate dynamics in each hand, sequential stickings (using the mallets independently or in numerical sequence to play passages, rather than alternating hands in the traditional manner), various roll textures, new mallet sounds, etc. There were a host of new possibilities that I was developing, but few original pieces composed yet for these techniques and textures.

 

Along with the nine Preludes I commissioned from Raymond Helble beginning in 1971, the four Penn Preludes (1974) are an historical document – almost a catalog of these new techniques and sounds as they were being developed. The first Prelude is a series of accelerandos; the second, a single “melodic” line with interjected chords; the third, a comical odd meter jaunt; and the fourth, a machine gun hail of notes, all over the keyboard. Instead of the traditional slow-fast-slow-fast plan, Penn chose slow-slow-fast-fast.

- LHS

Publisher: Marimba Productions

Prelude 4 - William Penn
00:00 / 00:21

Suite For Marimba

Alfred Fissinger

I. Mist
00:00 / 00:34

Publisher: Marimba Productions

Suite for Marimba was composed in 1950, making it one of the early "classics" of the original marimba repertoire.  Composed in a multi-voiced style, it is certainly the first polyphonic work for unaccompanied marimba.  This work "caught my ear" the first time I heard it because of its unusual tonal language – a combination of "tertian" harmony (traditional chords used by composers for hundreds of years) and "quintal and quartal" harmony (based on "stacked" perfect 4th, 5ths and their resultant major and minor seconds).  To my young ears then – and even today – this is a work rich in harmony, inventiveness and deep feeling.  Although this work was performed for decades with a traditional approach to the marimba, it also responds to many rolling techniques I developed in the 1970's.

 

Alfred Fissinger was an infantryman in Europe during World War II.   Shortly after his return to the USA at the end of the war, he began composing the Suite.   Each movement depicts a specific incident or place he experienced – from the beauty of the early morning mist, to a nighttime patrol in the mountains of Luxembourg; from the exquisite snow-capped mountains and tiny houses of the village Esch on the Sure River, to an emergency mission to meet a sudden German attack.

-LHS

II. Rendevous In Black
00:00 / 00:25

Great Wall

Leigh Howard Stevens

Publisher: Marimba Productions

Is it true, or a myth, that the Great Wall of China is the only man- made object that can be seen from outer space?  My piece, on the other hand, might not even be heard in the next room.   The Great Wall is almost 4,000 miles long.  My piece, only six minutes.  Is it true, or a myth, that hundreds of thousands of political prisoners worked on, died, and were buried in the wall?  I composed my piece with only a little help from my friends, and as far as I am aware, there have yet to be any fatalities. 

 

Perhaps the only valid reasons for choosing the name Great Wall are that the piece features an Asian cliché theme harmonized at the interval of a perfect fourth, I have tried to suggest the great mass and expanse of the wall, and both eventually fade into invisibility.

-LHS

Great Wall
00:00 / 00:30

Beads Of Glass

Gordon Stout

Publisher: Marimba Productions

My most recent composition for solo marimba is a flowing tapestry of tonal sounds for five-octave marimba. The work is about 8 minutes long, and provides the marimbist the chance to showcase the dark, bitter-sweet sounds of the lower and mid-register of the marimba.  It is dedicated to Leigh Howard Stevens, because the music was initially considered as material for a commission from Leigh for marimba solo and percussion quartet. As the work progressed, it became clear that the material was better suited for marimba alone.

-Gordon Stout

Beads of Glass
00:00 / 00:40

Houdini's Last Trick

Leigh Howard Stevens

The earliest sketches I have for this work are dated 2006. The fact that it is finally being published in 2019 is further proof, (as if any is necessary), that I am not a prolific composer. For many years, the working title was “Siren Song.” The Sirens of Greek mythology are female creatures that lure sailors fatally close to the rocks near the shore. So in general terms, a “siren song” refers to a temptation given into, that ends badly.


My friend Scott Stevens of the Metropolitan Opera said, “That material isn’t sweet enough for a siren song — it’s kind of sick. It could be the score for a ‘film noir’ about illusionists — like the 20th century’s greatest escape artist and magician, Harry Houdini.” There are a number of “marimba tricks” in the piece, and the expression “the hand is faster than the eye” applies to both magic and the marimba. So the idea of linking the work to magic gradually evolved. I occasionally perform some magic at the end of the work, but that requires just as much practice as preparing this “death-defying” marimba work — so my magic tricks often stay at home.
 

Musically, the work has only a few kernels of harmonic and melodic material. One type of “musical illusion,” used throughout the work is something I call “faux motion.” It is achieved by passing accents through a sustained chord, producing a false sense of movement and activity, despite the static nature of the harmony, or a slow-moving tune. In the initial presentation of the main material, accents are passed through the harmony every group of nine pitches. Similar material is treated with what appears to be greater energy and speed by contracting the accent pattern to every seven notes, then five, and finally, late in the work, every three pitches. While Houdini was tragically killed “by a trick gone wrong,” (there is much more to that over-simplified myth), I hope you don’t feel like Houdini’s Last Trick ends badly.

-LHS

Publisher: Marimba Productions

Rhythmic Caprice

Leigh Howard Stevens

This piece was my first attempt at composition for the marimba. In the late 1970s and early 1980s I developed three unusual “col legno” (Italian for “with wood”) effects that eventually ended up being central to the sound of this work.

  1. The birch handle is used on the edge of the bar instead of the mallet head.

  2. The mallet head and the handle are used simultaneously (now players refer to this as a “marimshot”).

  3. The whole length of both handles are used to produce a “splash/cluster.”

While the first of these special effects, “stick click,” was not unheard of at the time — some jazz players might have played a note or two with the handle at the end of a piece — playing extended passages with the handles, especially on the sharps, was fairly outrageous stuff for the time. The other two special effects had never been heard before and drew surprised laughter from “percussion savvy” audiences for years. These days, percussionists in the audience don’t even blink.


The first section of the piece is all derived from a simple descending modal figure first heard in the right hand after the short introduction. In the middle section the new melodic interest is all in the performer’s left hand, while the right hand accompanies with progressively more complicated tics and splashes. The last section is based on a three-note fragment of the motive from the first section.


The very limited melodic and harmonic materials of the piece rhythmically evolve from simple, to complex, to polyrhythmic to driving, to spasmodic, ultimately returning to simple rhythm in the six-measure codetta.

-LHS

Publisher: Marimba Productions

Asturias (Leyenda)

Isaac Albeniz, trans. Stevens

Publisher: Marimba Productions

This familiar work of Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz is best known to concert audiences as a piece for guitar.  Rather than base my transcription on one of the many available guitar editions, which appear to be based on each other, (they share many of the same deliberate changes as well as errors of harmony and rhythm), I went back to the original piano work which appears in Cantos de España Op. 232.  One of the benefits of consulting this edition can be heard in the repeated melody in octaves in the middle section.   This tune is usually played as single notes or simple octaves on guitar.  The original version has the octaves separated by two octaves.  This subtle detail restores an eerie, haunting dimension, lost in the popular guitar versions. 

-LHS

Grand Fantasy for Marimba

Raymond Helble

While I was a student at the Eastman School of Music, one day I heard some music being played in a practice room down the hall from me.  Someone was playing a late 19th Century piano work (very badly as I remember!).  The music really held my attention, but I couldn't identify the piece or composer.  As I listened I realized that this was almost too prototypical of the style to be original.  It was filled with happy, tuneful clichés and key changes that only a theory teacher (or musical prankster) could appreciate.  I knocked on the door and discovered that the performer was my composer friend, Raymond Helble. The same composer who usually wrote wild, atonal modern music was releasing some musical tension by improvising in the key of C.   Negotiations ensued.  Tongue firmly in cheek, pen loosely in hand, Grand Fantasy for Marimba was completed a few months later. 

Publisher: Marimba Productions

Preludes For Marimba

Raymond Helble

During my first year at the Eastman School of Music (1971-72), I worked to expand the new techniques, sounds, rolls and textures that grew out of my accidental “invention” of the “one-handed roll” as a high school student. Unfortunately, there was no marimba repertoire that utilized these ideas. Raymond Helble, a fellow student at the Eastman School of Music, was the first composer I commissioned to remedy that problem. If I remember correctly, the price of the first Prelude was cocktails and dinner. Though inexpensive, Prelude No. 1 was historic. In the very first measure, two of my new techniques were used: a one-handed roll and reverse-sticking (e.g., placing the inside right mallet on a higher pitch than the outside mallet in order to play otherwise unreachable chord combinations). A more expensive second set of Preludes was commissioned in the mid 1970’s and a third set of three was completed in the early 1980’s.

While few students or artists performed Helble’s Preludes, many studied their new techniques, and along with Gordon Stout’s Two Mexican Dances (1974), they were passed around to other potential marimba composers as examples of the new textures and the limits of what could be played. In my opinion, the combined impact of this handful of works on marimba composition today cannot be overstated.


Many of the pitch combinations found in Helble’s marimba music require what I refer to as “pretzel poses”. His music is based on tightly-structured motivic development and his contrapuntal style is quite the antitheses of today’s “minimalism”. In these Preludes, spanning more than a decade, you can hear the tonal language “progress” from 12-tone (“atonal”) in the early Preludes to a far more tonal feel of the later works. Raymond Helble has composed a substantial body of works using the marimba including Concerto for Orchestra and Marimba, Duo Concertante for Violin and Marimba, Two Movements for String Quartet and Marimba plus numerous unaccompanied works for marimba.

-LHS

Publisher: Marimba Productions

Preludes 1, 2, and 3

​​

Preludes 4, 5, and 6

Toccata Fantasy for Marimba

Raymond Helble

Commissioned and composed a year earlier,  Toccata Fantasy in E flat minor was premiered at my New York City debut concert in Town Hall in 1979. At the time of its composition, many composers and other musicians considered its “neo-baroque” texture and its “neo-romantic” harmony to be old fashioned.  But a few years later, tonal, tuneful music was starting to come back into fashion through the quasi-pop efforts of the minimalists such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass.   While Toccata Fantasy is by no means a minimalist work, it is in my opinion, a far-sighted precursor to the return of the esthetics of an older generation of composers: beauty, excitement and formal comprehensibility.  

As in J.S. Bach's unaccompanied violin Chaconne, the performer is given great freedom in the figurations, patterns and arpeggiations of certain sections of block chords. These sections have recently been refigured to take advantage of the extended range of my new marimba.

Publisher: Marimba Productions

Etude Op. 6, No. 9 in B Major & Etude Op. 6, No. 10 in C Major

Clair Omar Musser

Publisher: Marimba Productions

Clair Omar Musser was one of the most influential marimba teachers, performers, designers, marketers and composers of the first half of the last century.  His virtuostic "Etudes for Marimba" have been "rites of passage" for every marimbist for more than 50 years.  Composed in a "popular" parallel, block-chord style -- with little concern for "proper" voice leading, -- these little gems from the 1940's and 1950's are undeniably effective and smile producing.   The two on today's program are known more widely by their basic tonal center, ("B-major and C-major"), rather than by their somewhat pretentious Opus numbers.

-LHS

Op. 6 no. 10, C Major

Op. 6 No. 9, B Major

Reflections On The Nature Of Water

Jacob Druckman

Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes

Reflections on the Nature of Water was a joint commissioning project of LHS, William Moersch and Gordon Stout.  A National Endowment for the Arts grant was received for the commissioning of solo marimba works from major American composers.  The following short comments are from the composer:

 

“Reflections on the Nature of Water is a small payment toward a very large debt. There were primarily two composers, Debussy and Stravinsky, whose music affected me so profoundly during my tender formative years that I had no choice but to become a composer. It is to Debussy that I doff my hat with these reflections of his magical preludes.”

Time For Marimba

Minoru Miki

This 10-minute work holds a special place in the history of marimba repertoire. It was one of the first serious compositions commissioned for marimba artist Keiko Abe. Until the late 1960s, Abe performed popular and folk music arrangements on live radio and TV with her Xebec Marimba Trio, exposing the marimba and xylophone to millions of young Japanese.
-LHS


The following notes are taken from the Minoru Miki website:
Minoru MIKI composed this piece during the summer of 1968 for Ms. Keiko Abe’s first marimba recital. Critics have said that these events were the crucial starting points in modern marimba history. Before that year, Miki had listened to many marimba performances, but the pieces which he heard were arrangements of famous Western instrumental pieces. A six tone series consisting of C,B,Eb,G,E,Ab, along with variable quintuplet rhythm constructions are very important to this composition. However, the general atmosphere through the work should be very free, almost like an improvisation. During the 1960’s, the marimba had a limited range of just four octaves. If the modern performer wants to play tones in lower octaves, the performer should do so carefully and avoid overuse.

Publisher: Ongaku No Toma Sha Corp, Ltd.

Velocities

Joseph Schwantner

Publisher: Schott Helicon

Cast in a single allegro movement, VELOCITIES is characterized by a continuously changing texture of rapidly articulated sixteenth-notes that unfold in a framework of suddenly shifting meters.  The linear, harmonic and gestural elements presented throughout the work develop from a series of four, five, six and seven-note pitch sets: (E G# C Eb), (Db F Ab C# E), (Ab D Bb B C# G) and (Fb Eb Ab Db C Bb Gb).The first major division marked, “relentlessly with energy and intensity”, opens with a series of aggressive articulations of a repeating harmonic idea followed by flowing wave-like ostinato figures in seven-eight meter.  The second principal division of the work continues with the ever persistent sixteenth-notes. The primary rhythmic ideas in this section emphasize gestures often framed in triple meter.  The last major section re-engages the primary musical elements presented and developed earlier and leads finally to a forceful and spirited conclusion.  It is with admiration that I dedicate Velocities to Leigh Howard Stevens in appreciation of his formidable musical virtuosity and steadfast interest in my music.

-Joseph Schwantner

Night Rhapsody

John Serry

Publisher: John Serry

"Night Rhapsody" was commissioned by Leigh Howard Stevens for his 1979 New York City Town Hall Debut concert.  In it, I have tried to tap all of the seemingly unlimited resources of Leigh's technique.  Two motifs, one chromatic and the other modal, form the basis of the melodic material in the exposition.  Additional motifs (including the thirteenth century Dies Irae) are then introduced and subsequently juxtaposed in the development section.  A two-voiced choral in the left hand, pitted against a modified version of the main chromatic motif in the right hand eventually yield to a full four-voiced choral.  This in turn leads to the recapitulation.

-John Serry

Concerto Repertoire

Rosewood Dreaming

by William Cahn

Publisher: Marimba Productions, Inc.

Duration: Approximately 20 minutes

Instrumentation:

2 Flutes

2 Oboes

2 Clarinets in Bb

2 Bassoons

4 Horns in F

2 Trumpets

2 Trombones

Bass Trombone

Tuba

Percussion (5 players: 4.3 Marimba, 4.5 Marimba, Vibraphone, 2 Suspended Cymbals, 6 single-headed concert toms, Glockenspiel, Digital Keyboard)

Timpani

Harp

Solo Marimba

Strings

Commissioned by and composed for Leigh Howard Stevens, the work was initially intended to be a concerto for marimba and orchestra. The three-movement work soon evolved into a piece for Stevens to perform with the world-renowned percussion chamber ensemble, NEXUS. After being transcribed for wind ensemble by the composer, only then did it finally achieve its original goal of being a concerto for marimba and orchestra.

Full of memorable tunes, you will find yourself unconsciously singing the melodies long after the concert is over. Can be heard on the NEXUS CD, Lullaby

Concerto for Orchestra and Marimba

by Raymond Helble

Publisher: Marimba Productions, Inc.

Duration: Approximately 20 minutes

Instrumentation:

2 Flutes

Piccolo

2 Oboes

2 Clarinets in Bb

Bass Clarinet

2 Bassoons

Contrabassoon

4 Horns in F

3 Trumpets

2 Trombones

Bass Trombone

Tuba

Percussion

Harp

Solo Marimba

Strings

Helble’s Concerto for Orchestra and Marimba was written for Leigh Howard Stevens, to whom it is dedicated.  Its first and third movements were performed by him in 1975, with the Rochester (New York) Philharmonic under the direction of Taavo Virkhaus.  The composer later revised them and added a second movement.  The complete work was premiered in 1981 by the Denver (Colorado) Symphony under the direction of Gaetano Delogu. 

 

The first movement, Moderato e Sostenuto, is based on a main theme whose principal feature is the rising and falling figure -- four notes going up and four down.  After a long orchestral opening, the soloist finally joins in and develops the musical ideas in a long solo.  The second movement is Scherzo, Assai moderato, in which orchestra and soloist are set in great contrast;  the one rather ponderous and slow, the other light and at times furiously fast.  From the beginning, the music emphasizes Mr. Helble’s contrapuntal writing.  The finale starts with a portentous slow introduction, Adagio molto, in which more rising and falling motives are contrapuntally treated.  The marimba leads the way into the driving, rhythmic main section, Allegro molto e con brio.  The concerto is scored for piccolo and two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, percussion, harp and strings. 

In the title of this work, “orchestra” and “marimba” are in reverse order from the traditional, because Concerto for Orchestra and  Marimba is first and foremost a showcase for the orchestra.  

Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra, Op. 34

by Robert Kurka

Robert Kurka’s Marimba Concerto was commissioned by the teacher of Leigh Howard Stevens, Vida Chenoweth, who recently died on December 14, 2018.  Chenoweth premiered the work almost exactly 60 years ago, on November 11, 1959 in Carnegie Hall.  It was the first time a performance for solo marimba had been heard on its stage.  The work was written for a “low-A” marimba with a range of 4-1/3 octaves.  This was the biggest marimba available at the time and had only been introduced to the world about ten years before.  Today, a 5-octave range is common, with the lowest note being the same as the lowest note on a cello.  Mr. Stevens, being a marimba designer as well as a marimba soloist, performs on an instrument of his own design and has transposed some of the notes of the marimba part down an octave, to take advantage of today’s 5-octave range.  Stevens is known for inventing a new way of holding 4 mallets (“the Stevens grip”), as well as the “one-handed roll,” and other expressive ways of sustaining the sound of the marimba. These techniques are now commonly used in marimba compositions and performance.  All these advances in technique have been incorporated into his interpretation of the solo part.  Stevens performs an original cadenza which he has composed with musical themes taken from the first movement.

 

Notes by the Publisher

Born of Czech parents on December 22, 1921 in Cicero, Illinois, Robert Kurka achieved a career of distinction, despite his short life.  Although largely self-taught, he studied composition briefly with two outstanding teachers, Otto Luening and Darius Milhaud.

 

Life Magazine honored Robert Kurka by including him in a list of nine composers selected for special notice; he was labelled “the tunesmith.”  He taught at the City College of New York, Queens College, and was composer-in-residence at Dartmouth College.  He received commissions from various musical organizations and was co-winner of the George Gershwin Memorial Award.  Finally, in the early 1950’s he received the most coveted of all honors, a grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship award. 

 

Reporters for newspapers and magazines turned out in full force for the premiere, and wrote glowing accounts. Time Magazine wrote, “As for the piece itself, it proved to be tuneful, crisply rhythmic, shot through with jazz echoes and a spirit of jaunty sophistication.  It proved again that the composer Kurka had one of the most promising original talents in U.S. music.”  The New York Journal-American  wrote, “Kurka’s Concerto for Marimba saved the evening; with this piece the concert came alive:  syncopated music with lighthearted melodic writing.  This work is as native as the barn dance-full of spirit.”

 

Tragically, Kurka had died of leukemia nearly two years before:  December 12, 1957.  The world premiere of Kurka’s opera The Good Soldier Schweik also took place after the composer’s death; it was presented April 29, 1958, by the New York City Opera. 

Publisher: Weintraub Music Company

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Duration: Approximately 20 minutes

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Instrumentation:

2 Flutes (2nd Flute doubles Piccolo)

2 Oboes

2 Clarinets in Bb

2 Bassoons

2 Horns in F

2 Trumpets in C

2 Trombones (Tenor)

4 Timpani - Snare Drum

Strings

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