Santa's Percussion Parade

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy One of the best-known melodies from the ballet "The Nutcracker" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is played by a mallet trio with glockenspiel and marimba, initially relatively true to the original. Gradually this develops into a swing rhythm in which the glockenspiel player switches to the snare drum. Optionally, a small drum set can be used in this part.

The solo on the marimba can also be improvised freely. The bass part can also be played on an A marimba. Es ist ein Ros entsprungen Vibraphone and marimba play the beautiful Christmas carol freely in tempo and dynamics. This requires good listening to each other because there is no continuous metre. The musicians should try to create a coherent musical arc over the whole piece. The melody, written in Bb major, ends after some phrases in a C major chord. This unusual turn should be deliberately emphasised.

The vibraphone can be played with two mallets; a four-mallet technique is required on the marimba. Kommet, ihr Malletspieler After a mystical intro, the melody, inspired by the Christmas carol "Kommet, ihr Hirten", originally from Bohemia, develops into a groove in ¾ time, reminiscent of a singer-songwriter style. Because of the often occurring two against three rhythm, the piece can be seen as an exercise in alternating between duols and triplets. The solos of glockenspiel and xylophone can also be freely improvised ad libitum.

The aim is to show that the glockenspiel and xylophone are also well suited for improvisation. Alternatively, the parts can also be played on a vibraphone and marimba. The rhythm and bass parts can also be omitted and alternatively played on an A marimba.