M'bira

Instrumentation: Marimba

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Length: 4:40

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Composition Date: 1998

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Commissioned: Resound Festival of Contemporary Music

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Program Notes

M’bira was commissioned by Trevor Brandenburg through the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and was first performed in 1999 at the Resound Festival of Contemporary Music. It was written as both a concert etude and as an educational tool. Trevor is very dedicated to teaching percussion and has developed a concert/clinic that he performs for all levels of schools. He wanted a piece that was concise enough to play at these concerts and would showcase his virtuosity on marimba. The piece focuses on four-mallet technique both in melodic lines as well as in rolled and unrolled chords. The first half has a sense of perpetual motion and explores my ongoing interest in minimalism. The middle section is a chorale derived from lines in section one which transitions into a recap. of the original material.

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Score Excerpt