Yurikago (Cradle) is a Japanese folk song by composer Shinsaku Kusakawa. In her description of the piece, arranger Rika Fujii states, "It is a song my mother used to sing to me as a child." Although the original song was written in 4/4, this piece is treated in 3/4 to convey a swinging cradle and lullabye feeling.
Originally arranged by Fujii as a duet for marimba and sanukite (keyboard instrument made out of sanukite stones found in the Kagawa Prefecture of Japan) for her and her mother, Brian Zator expanded the duo arrangement to a quartet using two marimbas and two vibraphones. This would be an effective intermediate level piece for a program wanting to highlight the warmth and tenderness attainable by mallet keyboard quartets.
