“Manual of Marimba-Vibe” is a set of four short solos for combined marimba and vibraphone, commissioned by and dedicated to Isaac Pyatt. The piece is inspired by our shared obsession with percussion repertoire: cataloguing, organizing, and finding patterns in pieces; and is tinged by our shared love of high fantasy.

Taking inspiration from the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, I designed this piece as a brief bestiary for the shape-shifting creature that is the marimba-vibe. Each piece therefore has a different physical configuration of the two instruments, and the title suggests a type of kinesthetic motion across the instrument for the performer. Following the open-ended narrative structure of D&D, each title is also presented as a riddle, a prophecy, or a misstatement - as something that can lead down a multitude of paths before (hopefully) arriving at its intended destination.

i. Prelude: even ruin’s end holds a clock with no face… the door’s secret (8)
ii. Dirge: time marshes on
iii. Scherzo: clock wise
iv. Toccata: a broken mirror is right twice per day

"Manual of Marimba-Vibe" was commissioned by Isaac Pyatt. The score includes all four movements and is delivered as a PDF by email.