Leaves Fell Playfully for marimba quartet
Publisher: C. Alan Publications (2008)
Composed: 2008
Duration: 3′
Difficulty: Medium
Instrumentation (4 players): 4.0-octave marimba, 4.3-octave marimba
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I had a large cottonwood tree in my backyard and every winter, sometime around the first of December, I would look out to find a bed of leaves that virtually hid any evidence of grass. Raking it up was a project!  However, with two young children at home, those massive piles of leaves quickly turned into a playful attraction. Leaves Fell Playfully is the dance of those many leaves as they make their one and only journey to the ground. A light breeze, the opening passing sixteenth-note gesture, releases the leaves from their tree as the dance begins. The melodic content moves freely through several major and minor key centers as the dance passes between members of the quartet. Eventually the lower marimba voices take over the forward motion of the piece with an undulating line as the leaves begin to pile on the ground. With a final gust from the wind, the original dance resumes as the remaining leaves fell playfully to the ground.

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This is an excellent intermediate-level marimba quartet, which is very pedagogically sound as well. – Jim Lambert
Printed by permission of the Percussive Arts Society, inc.