Mallet Quartet Explained

Mallet Quartet is a composition by Steve Reich scored for two marimbas and two vibraphones, or for four marimbas. It was co-commissioned by the Amadinda Quartet in Budapest, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, by Nexus in Toronto, So Percussion in New York, and Synergy Percussion in Australia. It received its world premiere on December 6, 2009, at the Bela Bartók National Concert Hall in Hungary and its US premiere at Stanford University on January 9, 2010.^{[1] [2]}

Structure

Mallet Quartet is in three movements, with its entirety lasting around 14 minutes:

1. Fast
2. Slow
3. Fast

The second movement, slow, is one of his most thinly textured works with acoustic instrumentation, as admitted by Reich himself.

Performance

The piece can either be played with two marimbas and two vibraphones, or with four marimbas.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Archived copy . 2014-01-07 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100613141426/http://ums.org/assets/programbooks/So_Percussion.pdf . 2010-06-13 .
2. News: So Percussion records Steve Reich's "Mallet Quartet".