The Dead by Kevin Joest is a unique piece for Marimba and 3-part speaking chorus. Each vocal part should have 2 or more performers, as there is a section where each part is split, as well as for the performers to balance with the marimba part.
My favorite sentence in all of literature is the basis for this piece. It is the last line in the last story of James Joyce's 'Dubliners' and reads as follows: 'His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling, faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and all the dead.' The story follows a man named Gabriel and his wife Greta. They are at dinner on Christmas Eve with Gabriel's aunt, then head home. Gabriel finds Greta staring out the window at the snow, and she tells him the story of a boy she loved in childhood who died of tuberculosis. Gabriel comes to the realization that Greta has always loved this other boy, Michael, and only 'settled' for him. It is then that his soul swoons into the lines I love so much. The marimba plays a minimalistic line throughout the majority of the piece, as more of a backup to the voices that provide a dark and ominous tone for the story. The piece also uses some Pendereskian effects, suggesting a chorus of souls in an almost Greek underworld sense. It is very minimalistic, starkly contrasting the complexity of the thematic material in the story. -KJ There are three vocal parts. Each should have 2 or more performers, as there is a section where each part is split, as well as for the performers to balance with the marimba part.
