Raspberry Tango is a light, audience-friendly keyboard quartet that would fit very nicely in a 3-minute window of space you might happen to have in a percussion ensemble concert. It could also be used as a valuable learning tool for students new to a chamber setting.
Each of the parts are medium in difficulty - high schoolers could learn the piece in a short time, and college students in even less. They're also all 2-mallet, so you don't have to worry about needing a kid with decent 4-mallet technique.
This piece comes with full, bound score and a data CD including individual parts and an mp3 recording.
Difficulty: Medium
Duration: 2' 30"
Instrumentation:
- Player 1: 4.3-Octave Marimba
- Player 2: 4.3-Octave Marimba
- Player 3: 4.3-Octave Marimba
- Player 4: 4.5-Octave Marimba
From the composer: This piece was inspired by a trip to Manhattan in the spring of 2011. When I returned to Texas, I had a few melodies dancing around in my brain that I had to get out. I started writing a quartet that I wanted to be playful and have a nice motion to it. After settling on the two main melodies, I tried to create some unique counterpoint and harmony to make it more colorful. The phrase "Raspberry Tango" jumped into my head while writing it and wouldn't leave, therefore leaving me with no choice but to make that the title of the piece. - Dustin Schulze
