Koleva,Tatiana Songs For Marimba: Ladder Of Escape 15 CD

With this disc I want to show the marimba deserves recognition as a fully-fledged solo instrument," says Tatiana Koleva. "It is played with sticks (mallets), but to me it is much more than just a percussion instrument. The marimba can sing by connecting the notes in long legato lines. There is so much colour and expression in the instrument, and so many different dynamic shades. It's all a matter of where and how to hit the wooden bars. It is in fact much like a piano. Apart from that beautifully warm, dark sound, the biggest difference is that you play a lot fewer notes simultaneously. I have two mallets in each hand - four instead of ten fingers if you were to translate that into piano terms - and the notes are much further apart because the keys are so much bigger than those on the piano. But there're also things that you can do better on a marimba than on a piano. For instance, you can produce beautiful long cello-like sounds by striking the keys with the bow of a string instrument.