Bach and the Marimba: Bridging the Gap to Non-Percussionists

Though the marimba is a relatively young instrument, it’s requirement for semi-professional and professional job auditions requires an increasing level of mastery on the instrument. The music most commonly requested on auditions for the marimba is the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Since auditions are a subjective judging environment a candidate must try and perform the music of Bach without offending non-percussionist members of the audition committee. I have chosen four of the more asked for works, Bach’s Cello Suite No.1 in G Major, Prelude, Violin Sonata in G minor, Fuga, Lute Suite in E minor, Allemande, and Invention No.4 in D minor to attempt to showcase both general strategies for using multiple recordings of each work to determine an aural middle ground and specific issues that must be dealt with to perform each work.