Fiesta de Marimba
Ana Nitmar & Ixim Tinamit
Sunday April 05, 2009
$12 adv. $15 dr. - 7pm
Fundraising event.
Advance tickets available through BrownPaperTickets.
Featuring Guatemalan singer Ana Nitmar and the marimba ensemble Ixim Tinamit (People of Corn). Plus Guatemalan Folkloric Dancers.
This program will highlight important aspects of Guatemala's national instrument, the marimba. A wide variety of musical genres can be adapted to the marimba, making it one of the most versatile instruments in the Americas. The performance will display this versatility, featuring musical genres as diverse as the waltz, bolero, cumbia, 6X8, and the son guatemalteco. A vast complex of musical styles based on triple-meter rhythm, will be explored throughout the program. The nature of marimba performance emphasizes the act of creating music as a collaborative effort. To underscore this idea, the group will include the participation of a combination of folkloric and popular music arranged for the standard seven person marimba ensemble, upright bass, and drums.
The standardized Guatemalan marimba double ensemble features two marimbas, the marimba grande (performed by four musicians) and the marimba tenor (usually performed by three musicians). These seven marimba players are divided into bass, harmony, lead melody, and complimentary melody roles, thus giving marimba performance a sense of what can be called " a democratic anonymity." That is, no one musician stands out as the single "star" of the music.
