The origins of this work are actually in another work- a concerto for marimba and 19 wind instruments. I wrote that work for Robert van Sice, and at the time he was dealing with some health issues, and so the work took on a kind of biographical form. I had originally written a three movement marimba concerto, but somehow the nature of the piece was affected by the knowledge of his circumstance, so I wrote two more movements which were contemplative to surround that work- a prologue and aria- so the work became a five movement piece- prologue, three movement concerto, and aria. It somehow seemed a little more personal that way.
Fast forward to a few years later, and the Yale Percussion Group was giving a concert featuring works by Yale composition faculty, and that is how I came to write this work for Sam- I adapted a movement from that original concerto.
The character of the piece kind of grows out of how I think of the physicality of the marimbist- as a kind of ballet dancer. Also, each note played by a marimba feels like a water droplet to me, and so each note is precious, and felt. This piece has a lot of silence in it, which for my mind also accentuates the preciousness of each note.
One of the other qualities which I love in marimba playing are low tremolos- which are those undulating rolled notes. They are ghostly when played quietly and warm when played more fully, and this piece is full of them, built around a harmonic progression which keeps coming back.
—Christopher Theofanidis
Biography