Here is a selection of my works for solo marimba, or marimba and one other instrument.

Published by Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/composers/robert-paterson/

Selected Marimba Works

Braids for violin and marimba (six-mallets)
Duration: 8'
Performers: Victoria Paterson, violin; Robert Paterson, marimba

Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=976

PROGRAM NOTES
An experience that fascinates me is watching my wife Victoria braid her hair. Braids draws its inspiration from watching her create elegant, masterful braids, with names such as French Twist, Back Twist, Flip Through, Victorian Twist, Rolled Braid, French Braid, Rope and Herringbone. The names of these various braids inspired me to invent interesting musical analogues and ultimately to create this piece.

The book I consulted while writing this piece is Hair: A Book of Braiding and Styles by Anne Akers Johnson.

Six Mallet Marimba

Braids (Violin and Marimba)

Forest Shadows for Solo Marimba.
Duration ca. 8'
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1224
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/forest-shadows

PROGRAM NOTES

While hiking, I am always struck by the beautiful imagery created by shadows on the forest floor. These shadows often make even small trees seem larger than life, while at the same time creating a two-dimensional world out of something entirely three-dimensional. In Forest Shadows, I evoke these images through the use of long tremolos and arpeggiated chords. The piece moves from pastoral sections that evoke nature scenes by nineteenth-century French painters such as Theodore Rousseau (for example, his painting The Forest in Winter at Sunset), to more powerful moments that might be compared to images in works by Romantic landscape painters such as Caspar David Friedrich.

I also draw inspiration from performers. Since Makoto’s only request was that I write him a piece inspired by either the forest or wood, this was easy. Hearing him perform live, I also was captivated by his musicality and sensitivity, and also by the full, robust sound he elicits from his marimba.

Forest Shadows was commissioned by the ISGM New Music Commissioning Fund for Makoto Nakura.

Wood and Forest

Forest Shadows - for Solo Marimba

Komodo for Solo Marimba (Six-Mallets). Duration: ca. 7'.
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=900

For more information: https://robertpaterson.com/komodo

PROGRAM NOTES
Komodo is not only inspired by Komodo Dragons, the famous monster lizards that live on the island of Komodo, but also by the surrounding ocean which contains one of the world’s richest marine environments. Komodo begins and ends with sections that evoke the magnitude and ferocity of the Komodo Dragon while the middle section is calm and a little wavy, reminiscent of the placid ocean and colorful marine life found in these waters.

Sometimes I am inspired to write a new work by something as simple as a title, a phrase or even a single word. In this case, the word ‘Komodo’ made me think of the Italian word ‘modo’ which means mode. In its most common sense, a mode is a type of scale. Sections of this piece are made up of Westernized Balinese scale patterns and arpeggios that are transposed up or down in a somewhat "modal" fashion.

Aside from any sort of programmatic or technical inspiration, I wrote this flashy, six-mallet piece to show off the bottom end of my five-octave marimba and to have something fun to play.

Komodo (Solo Six-Mallet Marimba)

Links & Chains for Violin and Marimba
Duration: 5'
Performers: Robin Zeh, violin; Robert Paterson, marimba

Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=1210

For more information: https://robertpaterson.com/links-and-chains-six-mallet-version

Four-mallet version also available: https://robertpaterson.com/links-and-chains-four-mallet-version

PROGRAM NOTES

The title of this piece reflects the structure: many parts and motives are linked and looped together, forming chains. There are also missing links throughout the piece, spots where notes have been dropped out and placed in other parts of the piece or else lost entirely. The violin part is designed to be a showy and slightly virtuosic, coupled with a solid, ostinato-like marimba counterpart. Both parts utilize flashy, extended techniques.

Links & Chains (Violin and Marimba - Six Mallet Version)

Stillness for Oboe and Marimba (Six-Mallets).
Duration: 6'
Performed by  Sarah Schram, oboe; Robert Paterson, marimba
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=1202

Stillness (Oboe and Marimba)

Tongue and Groove for Alto Sax and Marimba (Six Mallet Version)
Duration: 8'
Performers: Jeremy Justeson, alto sax; Robert Paterson, marimba

Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=905

For more information: https://robertpaterson.com/tongue-and-groove-four-mallet-version

PROGRAM NOTES
The title, Tongue and Groove, is borrowed from carpentry, and is a method of fitting similar objects together edge to edge. In this piece, it refers to tonguing, a technique used on wind instruments to enunciate different notes, to the groovy feel of the marimba part and to oral sex. It also refers to the rhythmic interaction between the instruments and to how the different lines precisely follow each other. Tongue and Groove is also available in a four mallet version, and both versions were commissioned by CASE Arts Group Inc. and a consortium of performers.

Tongue and Groove (Alto Sax and Marimba - Four Mallet Version)

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.

Links & Chains (Violin and Marimba - Six Mallet Version)

Robert Paterson Composer