Pagodes

In honor of the 100th anniversary of Claude Debussy's death in 2018, I decided to arrange a selection of piano pieces for Marimba, Vibraphone, and other Idiophonic instruments. Transforming these musical works to modern percussion instruments awakened my curiosity. It provides a well-fitting framework for Debussy's fundamental compositional idea and his source of inspiration: traditional Asian percussion music. Debussy developed an individual musical language inspired by a Gamelan Orchestra, which he was introduced to at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889. Including exotic gamelan elements in the composition, multiple uses of pentatonic, hexatonic and heptatonic scales as well as structural elements like the imitation of low gongs illustrate the Asian influences.

The Suite Estampes, in particular, its first movement Pagodes which Claude Debussy composed in 1903 encloses these ideas. As one of the most famous classical pianos works by the French composer, the colorful nature of this piece is intriguing. When I decided to arrange it, I choose Instruments which both implement the sound spectrum of the Piano and relate to the origin of Gamelan, e.g. reusing elements such as low gongs for the pieces fundament as well as Cencerros and Crotales as a recollection of themetallic Gamelan sound. Furthermore, the Marimba and Vibraphone are playing a major part in the piece, enhancing it with its warm Bass and brilliant resonant Tenor Sound.

Instrumental Requirements:

• Player 1 (Glockenspiel, Vibraphone (4.0 Octave), Tam-Tam)
• Player 2 (Crotales (c#', d#', f#', g#', h', c#'', d#''), Cencerros (g#, a#, h, c#', d#', f#', g#', h'), Vibraphone (3.0 Octave), Tuned Gongs (F#, H, d#))
• Player 3 (Marimba (5.0 Octave), Tuned Gongs (H, c#, d#))