The Voyage - Suite for Marimba

Item details

• Description +

  • The Voyage - Suite for Marimba are partly collected from Piazzollas music for A Midsummer Night´s Dream. The three pieces Ouverture – El Viaje (The Voyage) – Sensuel are supposed to be played in this order, but the parts will also function excellent for themselves as separate pieces as an encore or part of a recital.
    
    The arrangements are quite virtuoso written and are a real challenge to learn with a lot of fast sections together with one-hand rolls in order to prolong the sound of the marimba which then comes naturally when playing these pieces in original on the piano. Playing music from Astor Piazzolla - the Master of Argentinian Tango Nuevo, are always a thrill and I believe that the marimba captures very well his fiery rhythms together with the melancholically longingly tonal touch of his music.
    
    I am very thankful to Johan Svitzer, without his energy and knowledge, the Voyage-Suite wouldn´t have been made possible.
    
    Markus Leoson

• Instrumentation +

  • Marimba (5. Octave)

• About the composer +

  • Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles. 
    
    In 1992, American music critic Stephen Holden described Piazzolla as "the world's foremost composer of tango music".

• Reviews +

  • Percussive Notes, April 2023
    
    These arrangements of three pieces by Astor Piazzolla (“Ouverture,” “El Viaje,” and “Sensuel”) highlight the composer’s compositional emphasis on Argentinian Tango Nuevo, and are suited for a marimbist who has a solid grasp of fourmallet technique, expression, and performance confidence. The pieces are different in character and tempo, and all have their own charm and appeal. A YouTube search of the titles will yield examples of the original music, which do not deviate much from these arrangements.
    
    It should be noted that these pieces are not arranged in the same fashion as the familiar “Libertango” solo, in that the approach here is more pianistic with lighter and thinner chordal accompaniment and more emphasis on singleline melodic presentations. Additionally, the quickness of some of the melodic lines will require agile mallet-to-mallet facility, as is found in the playing style of Theodor Milkov. All in all, these pieces have a unique charisma about them, which might be a nice deviation for someone looking for a new type of marimba piece to present to an audience.
    
    —Joshua D. Smith

• Credits +

  • Front Cover graphics and layout: Nicola Lee
    Printed in Copenhagen, Denmark
    © Copyright by Lime Green Music Ltd.
    This arrangement © 2021 by Lime Green Music
    Reproduced by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.
    www.editionsvitzer.com

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