Medium
Solo 5-octave Marimba (playable on a 4.3-octave marimba)
4-mallet
Duration ca. 4:15
PROGRAM NOTES
A collection of continually changing arpeggiations and melodic ideas, Wandering is a delicate and beautiful work for solo marimba. The opening section is set primarily in 7/16 time and uses varying phrase lengths and occasional meter changes to establish a comfortable yet unpredictably repetitive ostinato. Three primary ideas are presented and intertwined before a brief interruption by a more aggressive rhythmic chordal section. Quickly returning to the original material, the line works its way down to the bottom of the instrument then gradually ritards into a three-and-a-half octave arpeggio of an ambiguous dominant-function chord. A more relaxed and peaceful melodic section is now allowed to surface as a contrast to the perpetual ostinato. Still, several arpeggiated figures begin to emerge with increasing frequency before the melody eventually gives way to a reprise of the opening material. As before, the arpeggiations work their way to the bottom of the instrument and the piece slowly ritards before concluding softly on a low C.
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Josh Gottry’s (b. 1974) first composition, Irrelevant for solo marimba, earned him an ASCAP Young Composer Competition grant in 1995. Since that time, he has been selected for numerous ASCAP Plus awards and has created over thirty published works that have been performed extensively at universities, junior high and high schools, and multiple national conferences. Mr. Gottry earned his BM in Percussion Performance at Northern Arizona University and his MM in Composition at Arizona State University. He is currently an adjunct professor of music at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, teaching percussion and composition as well as courses in music history and theory. Additionally, he maintains a private percussion studio and performs regularly throughout Arizona as a soloist and participant in various local ensembles.
Mr. Gottry is a member of the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) and the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers (ASCAP). He is a clinician for Mike Balter Mallets, Pro-Mark Sticks, and Yamaha Percussion. Mr. Gottry currently serves as President of the Arizona State Chapter of PAS and is a member of the PAS Education and Composition Committees. He has been published several times in Percussive Notes and presented a keyboard percussion clinic at PASIC 2007.
