Chorales - Once Upon a Time & The World Was Round

4.3 octave marimba (5.0 octave optional for II. The World Was Round)

The chorales Once Upon a Time and The World Was Round were written in 2018. After simultaneously working with several students on chorale passages found in different solos, I was inspired to develop a more defined pedagogical method in approaching rolled marimba textures.

These chorales came about as a result. The titles reflect spoken passages from John Cage’s Living Room Music, which my students were performing at the time of composition. The World Was Round is also loosely based off of a circle-of-5ths progression (“around and around and around”).