Out of the Woodwork (2016)
Genre: Marimba Solos (4), 4.3 oct., 4-mlts.
Difficulty: Medium
Duration: app. 2:00 each
Publisher: Tapspace (2016)
Price: $23

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Out of the Woodwork is a collection of four 4-mallet solos for the intermediate performer. All four solos can be performed on a 4.3-octave (low A) marimba. The following solos are included:

Hayzley (Medium – 2:00)
Shaded (Medium – 2:05)
May as Well (Medium – 1:45)
The Other Day (Easy-Medium 2:05)

Hayzley

The original idea for Hayzley stemmed from an ear-training session during an applied percussion lesson. The composer was demonstrating some intervallic relationships by outlining a blues scale. The “interval of the day” was the tritone so the composer created a small motivic statement to help the student, Aaron Smith from Cincinnati, OH, hear how the tritone is related to the dominant in a blues scale. After a few seconds of jamming, the word “hayzley” was used to refer to the new bluesy motive that the two had created. The word stuck and the composer promised to compose a piece with “hayzley” in it, for Aaron.

Shaded

Shaded was the last piece written in this collection (July 2016). The title stems from the slow tempo and the laid back nature of the piece, as if someone is being “shaded” during a hot day in July. The composer drew inspiration from several sources, including the marimba solo Whispering Woods from William Schinstine. Shaded can be used to help beginning students develop coordination between left and right hands. The opening section requires the performer to provide a consistent accompaniment with the left hand while the right hand provides a simple melodic line. Later, during the climatic point of the piece, the performer is required to perform a similar melodic line but with double vertical strokes in the right hand against that same, patient left hand harmonic pattern.

May as Well

Titled after the month in which it was written (May 2016), May as Well was composed in just a few days on the composer’s 4.3-octave marimba. After the opening theme was composed, the remainder of the piece fell into place on it’s own. The month of May has always evoked playful, young, and spirited feelings in the mind of the composer. These feelings were present during the compositional process and, as a result, are evident in the completed product. Also evident is the composer’s groove-oriented touch, which, in this piece, was influenced from pieces such as Footpath by Dave Samuels.

The Other Day

The Other Day was influenced by several specific tunes that are not normally associated with each other but were in the mind of the composer at that time: Rain Dance by Alice Gomez (for solo marimba), Suite Mexicana by Keith Larson (for solo marimba), and the performance of The Man Who Sold The World, by Nirvana from the famous MTV Unplugged session in 1993. This piece is written in A minor in an effort to help younger students who may not have access to a 5-octave marimba perform it. The mysterious mood of the opening section in A minor is contrasted with the hopeful and accomplished feelings of the closing section in the relative major.