This is really cool! I love the rhythms in the marimba, sudden rests, and seemingly missing or shifting notes in the pattern.

Wow. I really like your usage of different instruments and combining them into one piece. I would really love to see this performed live onstage. Great work overall! ✨

Nice piece of music. The flute and marimba really compliment each other and make the music really interesting. The marimba sounds like a really versatile instrument.

I hear this as an exploratory journey, a soundtrack piece almost, with movement and discovery abounding.

Beautiful sound.  Haunting and atmospheric.

@sevarandeep: haha, thanks. I'll tell Philip that!

Exquisite! Feels... breathed into existence by natural events. Well composed

Beautiful performance. The richness of the marimba and the sharpness of the flute perfectly complement each other. There is a very tight structure to the song and yet, it has a wonderful "loose" improvised feel.... I mean that in a very positive way. I really like the evolving emotions through the piece.

​Duo for Flute and Marimba - Music by Robert Paterson
Duration 15'
Performers: Sato Moughalian, flute; Robert Paterson, marimba

Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=1209

For more information: https://robertpaterson.com/duo-for-flute-and-marimba-six-mallet-version

NOTE: this work is also available as a version for four-mallet marimba:
https://robertpaterson.com/duo-for-flute-and-marimba-four-mallet-version

PROGRAM NOTES
There were two particular goals I had while writing Duo for Flute and Marimba. I wanted to write a piece that was substantially longer than a usual five-minute, one-movement chamber piece, and I also wanted to write a work with a marimba part that uses six mallets for someone other than me. Ingrid, being one of my most courageous friends, offered to learn this difficult technique if I would write a piece for Kesatuan.

This duo is constructed in three contrasting movements. Although the two outer movements have more in common with each other than with the jazzy second movement, shared motives, melodic fragments, textures and rhythmic ideas permeate all three. The flutist has an opportunity to use an alto flute in the last movement, and the marimbist uses six mallets in the first movement and five mallets in the third. My general goal with this duo is to squeeze as much color, contrapuntal interplay and excitement out of this combination of instruments as possible.

The first movement, Allegro Misterioso, is meant to have a somewhat soothing quality, defined by lightly ornamented flute lines and ostinati in the marimba part. The structure of this movement is essentially a simple A, B, A’ form.

The jazz-influenced second movement, Playfully Seductive, is written for a friend I met during the summer of 1998 named Elyse, with whom my wife Victoria and I became good friends. Elyse not only has a beautiful singing voice but also happens to be a flutist. During one discussion, she told me that her father played the role of Tony in the first Broadway production of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. A few times, we had fun playing and singing through her West Side Story songbook. During this movement, I refer to West Side Story and also to Elyse, her bass-playing ex-boyfriend (now her husband), Victoria and even myself through thematic leitmotifs. The form of this movement is similar to the first, in that the introductory material is re-introduced near the end of the movement.

The third movement, Vivace, is similar to the first movement in that it also contains ornamented flute lines and marimba ostinati. Themes are borrowed and developed from the first two movements, and both the first and third movements contain flute cadenzas. The end of this movement provides an exciting conclusion to the entire three-movement work.

Six Mallet Marimba

Duo for Flute and Marimba - III. Vivace

American composer Robert Paterson is a true New Yorker—born and bred in Buffalo, he lived in Rochester and Ithaca for over ten years, in New York City for over twenty years, and now lives in Saratoga Springs, near the Adirondacks. Paterson’s colorful music embraces a wide variety of themes, everything from goddesses and online dating to mathematics and the environment. His music is filled with emotion and fierce rhythmic energy, marked by elegance, wit, and meticulous craftsmanship. Named Composer of The Year by the Classical Recording Foundation at Carnegie Hall, Paterson is the winner of the Alfred I. DuPont Award, and his opera Three Way won the Grammy® under Best Classical Producer of the Year. His music is often a Best of the Year pick on National Public Radio. His orchestral tone poem, Dark Mountains, regularly airs on NPR’s Performance Today. Three Way premiered with Nashville Opera, then BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), and across the United States. Minnesota Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, The Oratorio Society of New York, Buffalo Philharmonic, Albany Pro Musica, Albany Symphony, Musica Sacra, Austin Symphony, Vermont Symphony, and ensembles worldwide perform his works. Paterson gives masterclasses at the Curtis Institute of Music, New York University, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and more. He is the Artistic Director and house composer for Mostly Modern Projects. Robert is a lifelong vegan and advocates for animals and the environment, celebrating the natural world with ground-breaking works such as his Triple Concerto, A New Eaarth, Listen, and I Go Among Trees.

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