Andean Refrains Set I Small Ensemble - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.935374

Andean Refrains, composed by Dan Heslink

The composing of "Andean Refrains" resulted from the composer’s travels in the Andes Mountains of Venezuela, where he came to know and enjoy the melodies of the indigenous Andean band. Although the marimba is not an instrument of that region, it seems to be well-suited to the music’s technical and expressive demands.

Requiring four marimbas and one xylophone, "Andean Refrains" is an original composition employing tradition Andean musical styles. Some of the five parts require four mallets, the others require two. It is best to perform the bass part on a marimba that can play two octaves below middle C, but if no instrument with that range is available octave transpositions of some notes is acceptable. In this work the marimbas imitate the wide vibrato of zampoñas, or panpipes, with rapidly alternating octaves. The notched-end wooden flute, quena, is suggested with hard mallets on the xylophone, and of course the guitars and charango (Andean ukulele) transcribe well to marimba with four mallets. The bass end of the marimba provides the register of the guitarrone. Chaccha, the rattle of llama toenails, is simulated by instructing one marimbaist to at times strike the bar with the handles of the mallet.

With this work the composer hopes to capture the quiet dignity and inevitability of life’s events expressed by Andean musicians.