Four Preludes

This collection of pieces was arranged for the purpose to expose percussionists to the musical depth and meaning behind Frederic Chopin’s music. As a pianist, I found that the sheer amount of meaning behind significant pianist-composers generally outweighed that of a lot of modern percussion repertoire. I also found this deep musicality to be one of the best features about the piano as an instrument, and I immediately realized a desire to share this music with other percussionists. The piano is an instrument that, in some form, has been around since the 1500’s, whereas classical percussion as we know it today has largely been around since the 1920’s and after. Clearly, piano solo music as a genre has had centuries more to develop than classical percussion - from the works of J.S. Bach to Rachmaninov, time has allowed for that instrument and its solo genre to grow and develop. From genius composers like Mozart and Beethoven, to virtuosos like Chopin and Liszt, all the way to the Golden Age performers like Arthur Rubenstein, Martha Argerich, and Vladimir Horowitz, the genre of solo piano has been taken almost to its limits musically and technically. Solo percussion, on the other hand (specifically pitched percussion and marimba), simply hasn’t had the same opportunities and time to grow and develop as a genre and instrument. I wanted to help bridge this gap between instrumental and musical development of these two instruments by arranging some of the greatest short works for piano for solo marimba in an effort to expose percussionists to the same depth of musicality that classical pianists have. ~ H.C.