Marimba Rossa

Abstract

ABSTRACT Marimba Rossa is a three-movement concert piece for marimba and symphony orchestra. The 14-minute piece is written in the spirit of the Italian Baroque concertos of Antonio Vivaldi (the "Red Priest" for whom the piece is named), using a harmonic and rhythm language that is heavily influenced by the concert and pop music of the late twentieth-century. Marimba Rossa was composed with the concept of Ars Combinatoria in mind. First espoused by George Rochberg in 1973, Ars Combinatoria is concert music that uses musical gestures drawn from any musical tradition. The accompanying monograph provides a detailed history of the modern concert marimba and an account of the evolution of its concert and popular music repertoire. Specific information about the marimba's origins in Asia, its place in the Bible, the development of the European strohfiedel xylophone, the refinement of the instrument in America, and a discussion of the Guatemalan, Mexican, and Japanese