<body><div>October on Cape Cod offers many natural wonders: autumn colors on the hardwoods, pine barrens, kettle ponds, beach roses with their end-of-the-season hips, seals in the surf along the beach of the National Seashore, salt marshes, and most notably wild mushrooms and oysters. It was because of the opportunity to forage for mushrooms and oysters that I agreed to tag along with the reviewer of an organ concert at the Community of Jesus’s Church of the Transfiguration in Rock Harbor, Orleans. For me, this was a steep a price to pay because I hate organs (think of the lyrics in Kiss Me Kate— “I hate men” and you will get a sense of my mood).Then half-way to the Cape, the BMInt publisher revealed that we were going to a marimba concert first and that he wanted me to review it. It made no difference to him that I could not tell a marimba from a xylophone and that my only close encounter with one (or the other) came in the 1960s in my northern Michigan high school. My high school friend who played it was the daughter of the school orchestra leader, so I got a chance to bang away on it at her house. I only remember thinking that it looked extremely complicated and of course completely different from my piano. But hey, percussion is percussion, so I acquiesced in writing this review.The concert under the auspices of the ARTS EMPOWERING LIFE Arts &amp; Entertainment Lecture Series took place in a newly constructed multi-purpose building at the end of a dirt road off Rt. 6 in Brewster, past some dilapidated structures, and beyond a locked gate (entry required calling a phone number). The only advertisement I noticed was a sandwich board on the highway announcing a concert. In the future, greater visibility might produce larger audiences.The main façade of the new digs sported a lighthouse-like cupola with a small vertical-axis wind turbine. Inside we observed some practice and recording studio spaces along with a larger auditorium that looked very much like a fancy basketball court (sans hoops). The setup included a marimba, a table with a laptop, a large screen, chairs for the interested community, a busy photographer, and several videographers.The composer/performer Michael Burritt (currently the Paul J. Burgett Distinguished Professorship and Professor of Percussion at The Eastman School of Music) bounded onto the “stage” and began the most engaging lec/dem I have ever experienced. He began by playing a piece that he composed years ago: The Islands, making the case for the marimba as an exquisitely virtuosic instrument. To my receptive ears, the piece had an improvisatory feel and indeed Burritt said at its conclusion that it had started as an improvisation. The range of color and timbre, and the intricate, intersecting lines astonished me.Burritt then gave some background on the evolution of the marimba repertoire in the 20th century: a handful of composers in the 30s and 40s, a few more in the 50s. By the 70s and 80s, the marimba had finally emerged from the percussion section in orchestral writing and the jazz ghetto. This renaissance inspired Burritt to work actively as a composer in addition to his career as a widely sought performer. Burritt has three concertos to his credit as well as numerous solo and chamber works for marimba and percussion. His works for solo marimba have become standards for the instrument and are frequently required repertoire in international competitions.<div style="position:relative;width:100%; height:0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZmBXDXafUiU?si=8-FOSSU6usEto41p" frameborder="0" style="width:100%; height:100%;top:0; left:0; position:absolute"></iframe></div>His digressions into why he composes, how he comes up with ideas, and how he develops ideas also perked our ears. At the most personal level, he said that he composes because he learns more about music; there is a lack of repertoire; and he wants to make a lasting contribution to “music that is useful.” His sources come from classical, jazz, pop, and folk. He said he strives to write “honest” music which resonates with who he is. (I assume that means no Morton Feldman indeterminacy for him). He gave the audience an example of idea development by citing the minor third motive in Beethoven’s Fifth.Using his Sweet Dreams and Time Machines and White Pines, he spoke to and demonstrated his composition process. He wanted White Pines to sound like a guitar and under his mallets, it did. The score moved around a pedal point, down the blocks, then up the blocks, then in both directions. During this, he changed the meter from 4/4 to 3/4, to 5/8. In other words, the composition had all the complexities associated with classical form. Indeed, he addressed his listeners with no condescension, alluding to hocketed melodies and retrograde inversions to a general audience. For Sweet Dreams he projected samples of the score which showed writing in 21/8. While the title is an allusion to the lyric “Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines” in the James Taylor song “Fire and Rain,” Burritt stated that the only similarity between the two pieces was their meditations on death, and in Burritt’s case, the loss of a colleague at Eastman.Finally, one would be remiss in failing to describe Burritt’s stage presence. He presents as a compact, wiry, intensely kinetic figure who almost levitates above the rosewood tone bars and dances with arms and hands flying. He becomes the visual personification of the sound he draws from his instrument. Do I like marimba better than organ, you betcha. Burritt’s virtuosity and palaver, foraging for wild mushrooms in the woods, and harvesting oysters near Billingsgate Shoals made for a perfect October Cape Cod weekend.For the BMInt-publisher’s review of the subsequent organ concert click HERE.More about Michael Burritt and his incredible playing HERE.Upcoming Arts Empowering Life events HERE.Mary Elizabeth Runkel is the former Director of Budget of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, after having received a BA in liberal arts and an MBA in strategic management. She spends her retirement practicing the piano under the misguided hope that, with enough effort, she will get better.</div></body>

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Marimba in the Marshes

October on Cape Cod offers many natural wonders: autumn colors on the hardwoods, pine barrens, kettle ponds, beach roses with their end-of-the-season hips, seals in the surf along the beach of the National Seashore, salt marshes, and most notably wild mushrooms and oysters. It was because of the opportunity to forage for mushrooms and oysters that I agreed to tag along with the reviewer of an organ concert at the Community of Jesus’s Church of the Transfiguration in Rock Harbor, Orleans. For me, this was a steep a price to pay because I hate organs (think of the lyrics in Kiss Me Kate— “I hate men” and you will get a sense of my mood).