Preconception

for solo marimba

Robert Zolnowski

Level: Medium

Duration: 5:20

State Lists: Missouri | Florida

Release Date: 2022

Product ID : TSPCS22-001

Price: $15.00

Item #: TSPCS22-001

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Description

Robert Zolnowski's marimba solo, Preconception, relates to the preconceived ideas people have about life's biggest milestones. He writes: "While composing this piece, I reflected on the excitement of transitioning to college, planning a wedding, buying a house, and starting a family, but I also contemplated the numerous other emotions that come with these events - impatience, nervousness, trepidation, or fear."

The work embodies these mixed emotions with a range of moods. It remains rhythmic and forward-leaning throughout, but calm reflectiveness is interspersed with moments of dissonance, silence, and aggression. All four mallets are consistently used, usually switching between repeated double vertical strokes and simple permutations. This piece works great as a technical study or recital piece for the intermediate player, and offers plenty of opportunity to express complex feelings through performance!

Preconception ships as a printed, professionally-bound folio with a full-color cover.

Instrumentation

Marimba — low F

Reviews

This piece “relates to the preconceived ideas people have about life’s biggest milestones.” The composer writes, “While composing this piece, I reflected on the excitement of transitioning to college, planning a wedding, buying a house, and starting a family, but I also contemplated the numerous other emotions that come with these events — impatience, nervousness, trepidation, or fear.”

The work captures the feeling of mixed emotions perfectly, shifting with ease from calm and serene to dissonant. “Preconception” is contemporary but never to the point of becoming inaccessible to listeners. The composer makes excellent use of rhythmic motifs to create a “forward learning” texture and makes use of well-thought-out grooves without being predictable.

Four mallets are used from beginning to end, so a good technical foundation is necessary to perform this piece. From a technical standpoint, it is reminiscent of Sammut or Smadbeck but remains wholly its own. I recommend “Preconception” to any intermediate player looking for a technical challenge that allows for a lot of expression.

—Joe Millea
Percussive Notes
Vol. 60, No. 4, August 2022