Gunther Schuller, Marimbology (1993)
Marimbology was written in the summer of 1993 on a commission from New Music Marimba, the Percussive Arts Society, Nancy Zeltsman, William Moersch, and Robert Van Sice, with a grant from the Meet The Composer/Reader's Digest Commissioning Program. The composer provides the following note:

"The work is in four contrasting movements, exploiting not only the wonderfully rich sonorities of the five-octave marimba, but its remarkable technical/virtuosic and expressive capacities. The opening movement, marked Scherzando, begins with a light trickle of high register sounds (like a tiny high-lying mountain spring), gradually running its course into the lower register, growing dynamically along the way, and eventually evolving into a jaunty scherzo in asymmetrical meters and odd rhythmic patterns. But soon the piece reverses itself, the long downward opening run now heading upwards (like running a film backwards) to a "sudden-death" chordal climax. The second movement, Rhapsody, explores the darker and more harmonic qualities of the marimba. The middle section consists of one-handed tremolo pedal points accompanying dramatic fanfare-like gestures. The movement ends on a quiet, contemplative note. The ensuing Sarabande is stately in character, closing with a chorale-like passage and a wispy "after-thought". The Finale, Toccata, features a plethora of ragtimey syncopations and jazzy swing. It is a virtuoso tour-de-force which stretches the technical boundaries of marimba playing to its farthest limits."
    --Gunther Schuller

Gunther Schuller has developed a musical career that ranges from composers and conductor to educator, administrator, music publisher, record producer and author. He taught composition and conducting at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood from 1963 to 1984. During the last 14 of those years, he was also the Center's Artistic Director. Schuller served as President of New England Conservatory from 1967 to 1977. He has written dozens of essays and four books including the encyclopedic study, The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz - 1930-1945. In 1989, he was the recipient of Columbia University's William Schuman Award for Lifetime Achievement in American Music and in 1991, received one of the coveted MacArthur Awards. In 1994, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Composition as well as a lifetime achievement award from BMI.