Merry Go Round
Robert Paterson
About this work:
Merry Go Round is the first of four projected pieces based on themes relating to children’s experiences. It starts out sounding like the music played on a merry go round at a fair but becomes dizzy toward the end. My inspiration for this piece occurred one day when I was with a girlfriend. I was standing in front of my marimba, fooling around and showing off. To impress her, I grabbed three mallets in each hand and clumsily proceeded to play a simple “oompah-pah” pattern with my left hand while playing a melody with my right. It was the first time I had ever tried to play with six mallets at once, and it all started out as an accident. I was inspired, so I developed that pattern into this playful piece, the first one I ever wrote for marimba played with six mallets.
– Robert Paterson
Year composed: 1990
Duration: 00:02:45
Ensemble type: Solo instrument, non-keyboard:Marimba
Instrumentation: 1 Marimba
Instrumentation notes: For six-mallet marimba solo. This work is currently unavailable.