April 22, 2009
5 min read

The Marimba, Illuminated


Lukas Ligeti brings an innovative instrument to ACO - the Marimba Lumina. Ligeti's work Labyrinth of Clouds features the Marimba Lumina in a "concerto of sorts" for electronic percussion, live electronics, and orchestra.

"Modeled somewhat after its acoustic namesake, Marimba Lumina is an electronic MIDI controller that brings an extended vocabulary and range of expression to the mallet instrument family. Marimba Lumina's playing surface includes a traditionally arrayed set of electronic bars and some (not so traditional) trigger pads and strips (reminiscent of those early ribbon controllers). The instrument is played with special foam covered mallets. Although primarily a controller, Marimba Lumina has a built in synthesizer, and can thus function as a complete instrument, ready to plug in and play.

"As you may have suspected, Marimba Lumina adds a few tricks to the usual capabilities of the marimba. User definable "zones" allow portions of the instrument to respond to gesture in different ways. Augmenting the potential for expressive control, Marimba Lumina responds to several new performance variables, including position along the length of the bars, dampening, and note density.

"And for those looking for more possibilities, Marimba Lumina can identify which of four color-coded mallets has struck a bar. This allows one to program different instrumental responses for each mallet, or to implement musical structures in which one mallet selects a course of action while others modify or implement it.

"Living up to its namesake, the Marimba Lumina has LED illumination built into every bar, strip, and pad. These LED's can show key status, edit configuration, controller status or pad selection. Used pedagogically, they can help a player follow a MIDI sequence or the actions of another player. And for icing on the cake, they make it easy to play in the dark!"

Source: http://www.buchla.com/mlumina/


American Composers Orchestra is grateful to the many organizations that make its programs possible including Arthur F. & Alice E. Adams Charitable Fund, Altman Foundation, Amphion Foundation, Benevity, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, BMI Foundation, BMI, Inc., Charity Navigator's Giving Basket, Cheswatyr Foundation, Edward T. Cone Foundation, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Ford Foundation’s Good Neighbor Committee, Give Lively, Francis B. Goelet Charitable Trust, Fromm Music Foundation, Steven R. Gerber Trust, G. Schirmer/Wise Music Foundation, The Hearst Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, The Adele and John Gray Endowment Fund, Jephson Educational Trusts, Jerome Foundation, MacMillan Family Foundation, Mellon Foundation, New Music USA’s Organization Fund, The New York Community Trust (Musical Arts Fund, Clara Lewisohn Rossin Trust, and Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund), Pacific Harmony Foundation, Paypal Giving Fund, Rexford Fund, Sphinx Venture Fund, TD Charitable Foundation, Turrell Fund, UKOGF Foundation, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

Corporate gifts to match employee contributions are made by Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Triton Container International Incorporated of North America, and Neiman Marcus.

Public funds are provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, Office of Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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