You Can Can-Can Too by Offenbach arr. Mat Moore

For a middle school or high school percussion ensemble, “You Can Can-Can Too” is accessible to both young students and audiences, exposes students to well-regarded classical music, and can be a setting for an instructor to teach new musical concepts. The piece is an arrangement of the familiar tune The Galop from Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, also borrowing from Saint-Saëns’ usage of the theme in The Carnival of the Animals. Notable features include a player-to-player two against three polyrhythm in the first portion of the piece, changing melody and accompaniment roles (including a legato, rolled timpani melody), a modulation from Bb to Eb, and an exciting finish. The marimba parts are playable on a single 4.3 octave instrument, and all mallet parts can easily be doubled on different instruments as needed.