Introduction to Marimba Music

The sound of the marimba is gentle since you can feel the warmth of the wood. This time, I would like to introduce some neat marimba music that I selected.

Before starting, have you ever heard of the musical instrument called marimba?
The marimba is a keyboard percussion instrument with a set of wooden bars, and it is a type of xylophone. However, the tone of the xylophone is completely different from that of the marimba.

Malletech/ X4.0 Concert Xylophone 34 5/8"

The characteristic of the xylophone is a clear and bright tone. Strike the wooden bars with hard mallets to create a prominent tone that has a strong presence in the ensemble.

Malletech  / MSA5.0 Stiletto 2 Marimba

The marimba, on the other hand, is played with soft yarn or cotton mallets and features a soft and mellow tone. This gentle tone easily blends with the other instruments even in an ensemble.
In Japan, manufacturers such as YAMAHA and KOROGI are the mainstream, but Sound House has great marimbas from the American marimba manufacturer Malletech. Check out the link below!
関連ページ『鍵盤打楽器、マレット、スティックのトップブランド - Malletech（マレテック）』

The “Stiletto 2 MSA 5.0” above is on display and for sale in our showroom. Please contact us for further details.

Now that we learned about the difference between the xylophone and the marimba, I’m going to introduce some marimba pieces.

[As a soothing BGM before you fall asleep] “Hymning” by Robert Honstein

This is performed by world-famous marimbist and composer Michael Burritt. As the title suggests, the tremolo at the beginning makes you feel like you are listening to a hymn in a church. Listen to the gentle sounds of wood and mallets with earphones. I’m sure you will be able to sleep well.

[Fusion with digital music] “Trimetrical Hub” by John Psathas

This piece is also performed by Michael Burritt. He plays marimba and vibraphone along with the backing track. He makes this piece look so easy to play, but it’s actually very difficult... Not only do you have to know how to read the sheet music while playing the instrument, but you also have to learn how to play the music along with the backing track, so plenty of practice and high concentration are required. In this video, Burritt plays along perfectly with the backing track and it’s so good.

[Ensemble with various musical instruments] “Sugaria” by Eric Sammut

The soloist in this video is the marimbist Katarzyna Myćka. This particular piece is a concerto containing three movements for marimba and string ensemble. This video shows the performance with the accompaniment by piano, contrabass, vibraphone and percussion. The light melody with the atmosphere of a jazz or tango feel is impressive. Odd time signatures are used a lot, and you will never get tired of listening to this piece over and over again.

[Perfectly in sync! Visually entertaining duet] 「Khamsin」by Emmanuel Séjourné

Desktop castanets are placed on both sides of the marimba, and two players play standing on the black key side and the white key side. The player standing on the black key side has to do everything the other way around, so it seems to be so difficult to read the sheet music. It seems difficult to arrange so that their hands do not overlap with each other. The group is called the Quey Percussion Duo by Gene Koshinski and Tim Broscious. This group has played many other duets and videos are uploaded on YouTube regularly. How they perform in sync is just unbelievable. If you are interested, search “Quey Percussion Duo”!

Have you found your favorite one? I love gentle music like “Hymning” that I talked about, so I always listen to those types of pieces to relax.. There are many other marimba pieces, so if you need some relaxation from the gentle tone of the wood, please check out more of them!