Tuesday Tones

Staying with our exploration of the classical and concert music of Japan, we have something pretty interesting: a concerto for marimba and orchestra.

The marimba is likely the most fascinating of the percussion instruments, with its range and its earthy tone that is much less strident and cutting than its sister instrument, the glockenspiel. Our composer here, Takatomi Nobunaga, uses the marimba to great effect in a work that is both impressionistic and virtuosic in its demands on the soloist. And this work puts those demands on the marimbist (I’m assuming marimbist is a word, I’m going with it) almost immediately as the opening bars send the soloist on a wild display that puts the instrument’s range right up front and center. The remainder of the work is at times haunting, at other times enervating.

From what I’ve read. Takatomi Nobunaga is mostly known as a choral composer. I’m glad he composed this concerto, though.

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