Combardo

Composer: Kai Stensgaard

Instrument: Multi Percussion

Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Published: 2021

• Description

Combardo is a multi-percussion solo piece inspired by the idea of using advanced four mallet marimba technique to create a challenge for multi percussion players and marimba players. It is fun to play and has a great apeal to the audience. Furthermore you can develope your four mallet skills by studying this piece!

• Required Instruments
  
  8 Tom-Toms (the four highest can be substituted with two congas and and a set of bongos) 4 Wood Blocks
  1 Chinese Opera Gong
  1 Chinese Cymbal
  1 Crash Cymbal (medium)
  1 Grand Cassa
  1 Kick Drum with pedal

• (Percussive Notes, February 2022)

  Kai Stensgaard is well-known for his sixmallet marimba prowess, as well as his mallet compositions and recordings. With this 5½-minute solo, his aim was to write a multi-percussion piece that marimba players could approach as if they were playing permutations on a marimba — essentially working their four-mallet technique on drums, woodblocks, and cymbals.
  
  Throughout the work, some really cool sounds come from this solo (e.g., rippling a 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 permutation on toms), and it looks like it would be fun (and a bit easier) to approach the toms and woodblocks like an oversized “drummy” marimba. One of the drawbacks is the formulaic approach to the writing, which groups most of the sounds and groove ideas into predictable four-bar phrases with obligatory cymbal-crash bookends before starting the next sequence. This type of writing is limiting, and detracts from the cohesive potential of a long-form piece. The result is a piece that sounds fragmented and rudimentary.
  
  —Joshua D. Smith