Word: marimbas
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First of all, the marimba is not a dance, like the mambo. Nor is it a folk band, like a mariachi. Nor should it be confused with maracas, those hollow gourds filled with dry seeds that shake, rattle and roll south of the border. Most audiences could not pick it out of a percussion lineup, and concert managers flee at the very mention of its name. For Leigh Howard Stevens, to be the world's greatest classical marimbist must sometimes seem a dubious achievement...
That, however, does not keep him from rhapsodizing about an instrument he describes as an overgrown version of the xylophone, nor from doggedly pursuing his lonely calling. The New Jersey-born Stevens, 34, was first enchanted as a teenager by the distinctive sound of the marimba, the glowing, burnished, unpercussive tone that wafts from the four-plus-octave wooden instrument when it is struck with mallets. "I had never heard such a full and beautiful tone," recalls Stevens, who had been a high school rock drummer. "I could do all the rhythm things, and I also had melody...
Asian or African in origin, the marimba generally is played with one or two mallets in each hand, which are raised and then brought down sharply on the keys, called bars. Stevens has revolutionized the playing of the instrument, pioneering a complex four-mallet technique with a finger grip that allows him to execute broken chords, four-note harmonies and even separate melody and accompaniment by means of something he calls the "one-handed roll": one hand plays two notes tremolo while the other picks out a tune. In his hands, the marimba has gone from being a useful...
...Stevens' new Musicmasters album Bach on Marimba, a selection of the Inventions (originally written for a keyboard instrument) leap and dance crisply, while the chorale Christ lag in Todesbanden shimmers and glows. "With the xylophone, you hear more brittleness," explains Stevens. "With the marimba you hear the air column, a mellow, captivating sound that is rich in bass, like an organ...
...hermetic world of percussionists, Stevens has won renown for his innovation, which extends to the manufacture of mallets and the design of a new marimba. He is also struggling to create a repertory, which previously had consisted largely of transcriptions and arrangements. Stevens has performed more than 25 new works and commissioned an unaccompanied solo piece from John Corigliano. Slowly, the musical world is getting the message. In recent seasons, Stevens, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music who lives in Asbury Park, N.J., has been booked for as many as 50 performances, and audience reception has been enthusiastic...