Christmas Time Is Here originally appeared on the 1965 TV special "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and has since become a staple of holiday music. This version for percussion ensemble aims to feel intimate and light, but also makes use of the original's distinctive harmony to weave melody and accompaniment layers through the ensemble.



Instrumentation
Glockenspiel
Vibraphone 1
Vibraphone 2
*May share one instrument or 1 player may play both parts with included 4-mallet Vibraphone part

Marimba 1
Marimba 2
*May share one 4.3-octave instrument

Auxiliary Percussion (2 Suspended Cymbals [high and low], Mark Tree, Triangle, Sleigh Bells)
Drum Set

Christmas Time Is Here (Guaraldi)

Get your funk on with Spicy Jam! This fun solo for intermediate 4-mallet marimba keeps you on your toes with syncopated rhythms and exciting melodies with a touch of blues.

Spicy Jam

Three Paintings for Marimba and Snare Drum is an advanced work for two percussionists. Each “painting” is intended to evoke a unique imagery and is sure to leave a mark on performers and audiences alike.

Three Paintings for Marimba and Snare Drum

Up, Down, Charmed, Strange, Top, Bottom

Written for keyboard percussion sextet, Aquarium (from Carnival of the Animals - Saint Saens) is an arrangement of Saint-Saëns’ enchanting movement of the same name from The Carnival of the Animals. Musicality is at the forefront as players are challenged with complex, layered lines and multiple opportunities for rubato. Perfect for a middle or high school ensemble!

Aquarium

In nuclear physics, the term “critical mass” refers to the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The term is also broadly used in a number of fields from business to socioeconomics to software development to encapsulate similar notions, usually in regards to the stage at which a process becomes self-sustaining. Critical Mass for 12 player percussion ensemble portrays this idea as it gains, and at times loses its ability to sustain itself over the course of the piece’s three sections. Just as critical mass and a stable momentum seem to have been finally achieved in the final portion of the piece, the ensemble struggles to remain in control and finds catastrophe imminent...

Critical Mass

For a middle school or high school percussion ensemble, You Can Can-Can Too is accessible to both young students and audiences, exposes students to well-regarded classical music, and can be a setting for an instructor to teach new musical concepts. The piece is an arrangement of the familiar tune The Galop from Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, also borrowing from Saint-Saëns' usage of the theme in The Carnival of the Animals. Notable features include a player-to-player two against three polyrhythm in the first portion of the piece, changing melody and accompaniment roles (including a legato, rolled timpani melody), a modulation from Bb to Eb, and an exciting finish. The marimba parts are playable on a single 4.3 octave instrument, and all mallet parts can easily be doubled on different instruments as needed.

You Can Can-Can Too

Cohesion is a funky and fun-to-play multiple percussion piece for two performers. The core of the instrument setup is the mirrored placement of bass drum and snare, further augmented by an array of cymbals, toms, and latin percussion instruments. The many metric modulations and frequently changing time signatures keep the performers, and the audience, on their toes.

Cohesion

Music for Vibraphone & Electronica is an attempt to fuse together three different sounds and styles to which I am drawn: electronic drum and bass music, as pioneered and popularized by artists Square Pusher and Aphex Twin, the Indonesian music of Bali, and the eclectic world jazz of Pat Metheny. The piece is composed almost entirely in a Balinese melodic mode often found in the music of gamelan gong kebyar, the five-tone pelog selisir. This mode is then rotated harmonically through three opposite-yet-equal starting points of Bb, Gb, and D, each vying for supremacy. After an open improvisation and a transient period of non-related harmony, Bb emerges in a victorious arrival, and all prior themes are re-stated in a new light. This imbalance cannot last, however, and in the closing section the three starting points resign themselves back to equality in a stable cycle that seems to last indefinitely. The vibraphone part is of medium technical demands but high musical demands, and fills many roles within the composition, from legato melody lines, to background ostinato, to improvisatory passages.

Music For Vibraphone & Electronica

It ain't rocket science... or maybe it is! You may not have guessed, but astronautical engineers love fun music just as much as the rest of us. Watch out for flying pocket protectors and airborne glasses as any scientists in the audience are likely to find themselves gettin’ down with this groovin’ piece.

Rocket Science

Despite each part being playable primarily with two mallets, this arrangement will likely challenge a medium-advanced ensemble. Careful attention to dynamics, articulations, and the awareness of each player’s role within the ensemble will yield a rich and very musical experience. The keyboard parts are of similar difficulty, while the non-pitched percussion parts require musical sensitivity but have not been expanded greatly beyond the orchestral originals. The fivelet 16th notes near the end should be thought of more as gestures - glissandi with specific pitches, rather than distinctly articulated rhythms. An aggressive, forward energy is recommended for all but the middle section of the piece, and players should be comfortable with dissonance to properly bring across Prokofiev’s distinctive style.

Symphony No. 5 - Scherzo (Prokofiev)

Seeing the World was written to be an accessible, yet musically rich intermediate-level marimba quartet. The piece was written while traveling on a double-decker bus with a grand view of the sunny countryside, and aims to capture the excitement and adventure of travel. Four players share two 4.3 octave marimbas, allowing the piece to be performed by those with limited instrumentation. The piece is constructed around a single sticking pattern and has few changing notes per measure, so performers can quickly get past the note-learning phase and start having fun and sounding good!

Seeing The World

Part action-packed spy thriller, part bluesy groove, “Rogue Agent” is an approachable percussion ensemble piece for 6 or more players. Four-mallet technique is limited to easy-to-reach chords and difficulty is balanced between parts to ensure your group is sounding great as soon as possible. In the middle of the piece, extended playing techniques (using backs of mallets, timpani muffle pads, keyboard players switching to wood block and shaker) keep things fresh for the performers and audience. Keyboard parts may easily be doubled.

Rogue Agent

Quad Damage is a set of three progressive solos for tenor drums. Each is written to be performed along with the same play-along track. 

“Nerfed” - The easiest of the three solos. You’re a beginning quad student or someone still pretty fresh on the instrument, or you’re maybe a more experienced player that wants to brush up on fundamentals and just have a good time performing. 

“Buffed” - The middle child. You’ve been doing this a couple years and have some rudiments and arounds under your hands already. You’re ready for more challenge.

“Epic” - It’s pretty epic. You’ve got years of experience behind the drums and can handle just about anything thrown your way. 

more info at www.MattMoorePercussion.com

Quad Damage (play-along track)

"Sad Marimba" and "Mysterious Marimba" are a pair of easy/intermediate 2-mallet solos with musicality at the forefront. 

With its usage of a Grand Staff and incorporation of independent parts per hand, "Sad Marimba" serves as a great transition to 4-mallet repertoire.

"Mysterious Marimba" employs a modified scale that should be a fresh and interesting sound for performers and audience alike, and regularly jumps back and forth between 7/8 and 4/4.

Sad Marimba

Vector is written for keyboard percussion (front ensemble) and electronics. The keyboard percussion parts are easy/intermediate difficulty, with most of the challenge coming from ensemble timing / listening. It's fully playable with two mallets, though groups may choose to use four. Vector can function as a "lot warmup" or stand on its own on a percussion ensemble concert.

Perform it with acoustic mallet instruments and a simple "play-along track", or with full manual control of all electronic sounds, including the drumming, using Apple's MainStage (.concert file included).

Instrumentation
Standard "front ensemble keyboard percussion section":
Xylophone / Bells​
Marimba 1 (low A, may be doubled)
Marimba 2 (low A, may be doubled)
Vibraphone 1 (may be doubled)
Vibraphone 2 (may be doubled)

If electronics / drumming component performed manually:
Standard keyboard MIDI controller
Mallet MIDI controller (Pearl MalletStation, MalletKAT or similar)
Drum pad MIDI controller (Yamaha DTX-M12 or similar)

Vector

"Sad Marimba" and "Mysterious Marimba" are a pair of easy/intermediate 2-mallet solos with musicality at the forefront. 

With its usage of a Grand Staff and incorporation of independent parts per hand, "Sad Marimba" serves as a great transition into 4-mallet repertoire for younger performers.

"Mysterious Marimba" employs a modified scale that should be a fresh and interesting sound for performers and audience alike, and regularly jumps back and forth between 7/8 and 4/4.

Mysterious Marimba

Downshift Playalong Track

Commissioned by Hawaii Youth Percussion Ensemble, Caden Hong, Commissioning Project Director, "Imminent Launch" is a fun and accessible piece for beginning percussion ensemble. The keyboard parts may easily be doubled to fit any size group.

Imminent Launch

Available from C Alan Publications

“OnRush” is a completely electronic piece for MIDI controllers and Apple’s MainStage software, commissioned by Tahlequah Kirk and the Granbury HS percussion ensemble for their performance at the 2019 Percussive Arts Society International Convention IPEC showcase concert. OnRush borrows heavily from the Electronic Dance Music genre, but these energetic synths, evolving arpeggiations, and thumping bass hits are performed note-by-note by live performers through traditional notation.

OnRush comes with a score, parts, .MainStage file, and a guide PDF

Instrumentation
Player 1: 2 Drum Pads
Player 2: 2 Drum Pads
Player 3: Key Controller
Player 4: Mallet Controller
Player 5: 2 Vertical Faders

Recommended MIDI controllers:
Yamaha DTX M12 (shareable by Players 1 and 2)
Novation Impulse 61 (any 61+ key controller with faders and buttons will work)
Pearl MalletStation (any 3 octave mallet controller will work)

OnRush

Available from C. Alan Publications

"Enchantment" is an audience-friendly and programmatic journey through magic. Keyboard percussion-focused but with a contrasting section with wood blocks and other sound effects, this piece has something for everyone over the span of its shorter 3 minute run time. Keyboard parts may easily be doubled.

Instrumentation
Player 1: Bells & High Woodblock
Player 2: Vibraphone & Medium Woodblock
Player 3: Marimba (4-octave)
Player 4: Marimba 2 (4.3-octave)
Player 5: Timpani (4 drums) + Suspended Cymbal

*Marimba parts may be performed on one 4.3-octave instrument.​

Enchantment

Intro from "In the Grid", an original marching band show with Rob Stein of "Standing O Marching"
https://standingomarching.com/shows/in-the-grid/

In The Grid Intro

Percussion community,
We’re stuck at home. There’s uncertainty and anxiety in our lives. Let’s turn to music and play something together.
Here’s a piece for us, for right now, to help: “Together” for social-distanced marimba choir.
If you have safe access to a marimba or vibe or even a piano, record and send me a video of your part. I’ll put everything together and make a “virtual marimba choir” with everyone’s contributions. Please get your videos to me by Sunday night March 22nd.
Instructions and the music are here:
Direct download: https://bit.ly/38WNBo6

Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8z0pxpfvy9gwnri/AAAA8uoqum2TEJ-1qcWTP8Qda?dl=0

Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tGj2G5It2rQlGsZhVsg3WrwiAG8X5Ehh

Matt Moore

Popular tracks