A Walk Through Edinburgh by Larry Lawless

A Walk Through Edinburgh is inspired by and dedicated to She-e Wu, Professor of Percussion at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL USA, based on her photos from a trip to Scotland in 2017. Most especially it was influenced by her photos of the Festival Wheel, which explains why this work is one big circle. It also incorporates elements of the music of the Scottish Highland bagpipes, notably the use of the mixolydian mode, transposed to the key of C to utilize the entire range of the 5-octave marimba, the use of octave ostinati (and sometimes 5ths) to suggest the drones, and some elements of grace note embellishments.

This work also explores the concept of “metric obfuscation” where shifting rhythm patterns and ostinati (based on the typographical and kinesthetic nature of percussion) obscure the meter. For example, the pattern that evolves in the opening (finally fully realized on beat 2 in measure 14 of Marimba 4) is actually in 7/8 but remains written in 12/8.

The melody first appearing in measure 30, while meant to invoke the style of pipe music, is an original idea, not based on any existing melody. There are two traditional Scottish melodies that appear later, one being Scotland the Brave, presented in a deconstructed/reconstructed style, and the Robert Burns song, Is There for Honest Poverty ( A Man’s a Man for A’ That ) played simply by Marimba 1 with harmony by Marimba 2, over the ostinato of the other players.

– L.L.