Chamber Music Marimba,
Vibraphone
SKU:
PO.PE184
Composed by
John Psathas. Sws. Score
and parts. Promethean
Editions #PE184.
Published by Promethean
Editions (PO.PE184).
A gentle
liveliness inhabits
Muisca's first movement
Soledad. Time signatures
constantly shift, with
bar lengths changing by a
beat or half-beat, while
elsewhere certain
syncopated figures recall
the strum-based rhythms
of the work's original
incarnation for guitar.
Sleepy yet mysterious,
the second movement Chia
opens with a solo
vibraphone passage,
before the marimba joins
in for some gentle
melodic interplay. The
marimba then settles into
a lightly swinging
rhythmic bed in its rich
lower register, allowing
room for the vibraphone's
statements in its
resonant lower voice. The
gentle, odd metered
marimba groove that opens
the final movement El
Dorado lays a foundation
for the vibraphone's own
groove based melodies to
interlock with, their
lines tumbling through
shifting time signatures
reminiscent of the first
movement. The duo's
increasingly busy
interplay is peppered
with quickfire
synchronised runs in the
final minute of the
movement, bringing Muisca
to an exhilarating
conclusion.