Merry Go Round (1988-90)
for solo marimba (six-mallets)

Duration: ca. 2'45"
Instrumentation: marimba (six-mallets)
Premiere: Composer’s Forum, Eastman School of Music, Kilbourn Hall, Rochester, NY, May 27, 1990.
Publisher: Robert Paterson Music (ASCAP)

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Program Notes

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