• Thursday, November 16 • 10 A.M.
• Panel Discussion •
Japanese Marimba Style
BY REBECCA KITE
J
apanese marimba style, like Ameri- ready to go to school. Asabuki had nu- with the Tokyo Marimba Group and pre-
can marimba style, owes much to the merous xylophone students, including miered by Abe at their first concert on
history of xylophone performance in Keiko Abe. He also founded the Japan November 20, 1962.
the middle part of the twentieth century. Xylophone Association that has about Marimba playing style evolved in Ja-
The United States has a rich history of 5,000 members. pan in two branches. The first was the
ragtime music that was performed on the Yoichi Hiraoka lived and performed in continuation of the xylophone-influenced
xylophone throughout the Vaudeville era the United States for a time, with the performance style and repertoire of tran-
and into the radio era. Many xylophon- “Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints” by scriptions. Some notable teachers in this
ists wrote their own music and made ar- Alan Hohvaness and the “Sonata” by style are Michiko Takahashi and
rangements of popular tunes. Names Thomas Pitfield written for him. He also Mutsuko Taneya; the most well-known
such as George Hamilton Green, Harry had a radio show in Japan. performer in this style in the United
Breuer, and Sammy Herman immedi- The influence that these two famous States is Makoto Nakura. The second
ately come to mind. Compositions such as xylophonists had on the younger genera- branch is the marimba style of Keiko
“Nola,” “Fantasy on Arkansas Traveler,” tions of musicians and to all Japanese Abe, with an emphasis on contemporary
and original xylophone pieces like “Log who listened to the radio show is similar classical music, and in her own composi-
Cabin Blues” are some of the staples of to the influence of the swing bands on the tions, an emphasis on the rich, warm
this repertoire. radio in the United States during the resonance of the instrument.
This xylophone heritage is very 1930s and 1940s. Because of this, most
present in today’s American marimba Japanese are familiar with the xylo- Rebecca Kite lives in St. Paul, Minnesota
performance. A style of composition or phone, and the performance of transcrip- where she teaches marimba, percussion
performance that emphasizes virtuosic tions of classical and pop music is still and drumset at the University of St. Tho-
displays of speed, as well as harmonic very popular in Japan. mas and Hamline University. In addition
and melodic patterns like the “noodling” Whereas the xylophone was brought to to her performances as a marimba solo-
of ragtime or the arpeggiation of Musser Japan by military musicians who had ist, she works as a freelance timpanist
etudes, could be said to be influenced by visited Europe in the early part of the and percussionist with the Minnesota
xylophone technique. These styles adopt century, the marimba was taken to Japan Opera, the Plymouth Music Series Or-
characteristics of the xylophone: the on a missionary tour by the Lecours Mis- chestra, and Broadway touring shows.
short, sharp sound of the instrument and sion Group in 1950 and 1951 and again She won the 1999 PAS Outstanding Ser-
the speed that the bounce of the xylo- in subsequent years. These concerts were vice Award for her work in helping create
phone stroke helps produce. Sticking pat- heard by a huge number of people. Some- the WPN, and is Chair of the PAS Ma-
terns are especially important in this times the audience numbered in the rimba Committee. PN
style. thousands. These audiences included
In Japan, two very important xylo- young xylophonists who were greatly in-
phonists, Yoichi Hiraoka and Eiichi
Asabuki, were active in performing their
fluenced by the sound of the marimba.
The marimba rapidly became inte- REGISTER
own xylophone literature from the mid- grated into the musical life of many xylo-
1930s to the 1960s. The repertoire dif-
fered from the American repertoire. Most
phonists. While most players approached
the marimba with the same concept as
ONLINE
of their literature consisted of transcrip-
tions of classical music and arrange-
the xylophone (emphasizing transcrip-
tions, virtuosic speed, and a sharp, clear
for
ments of folk songs, including American
folk songs.
sound), Keiko Abe began exploring the
unique possibilities of the instrument. PASIC 2000
In Japan, there were numerous radio She experimented with rolls and four and
shows with xylophone music. In fact, in six mallets to evoke a rich, warm sound
the years immediately after World War
II, there was a fifteen-minute xylophone
from the instrument. In the 1960s at the
age of 24 she began commissioning com-
$10
show on the radio every day at 7:15 A.M.
where Asabuki played arrangements of
posers to write original works for the ma-
rimba, seeking composers who would
ave
music ranging from classical pieces to op-
era arias. This show went on for seven
share her vision to explore the sound,
timbre and expressive possibilities of the S
years, normally with some different mu- instrument. The first of these composi-
sic every day. Most children listened to
this in the morning as they were getting
tions was “Conversation” by Akira
Miyoshi, commissioned in conjunction
[Link]
PERCUSSIVE NOTES 54 OCTOBER 2000
PERCUSSIVE NOTES 55 OCTOBER 2000
