Mallet Quartet is a composition by Steve Reich scored for two marimbas and two vibraphones, or for four marimbas. It was co-commissioned by the Amadinda Quartet in Budapest, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, by Nexus in Toronto, So Percussion in New York, and Synergy Percussion in Australia. It received its world premiere on December 6, 2009, at the Bela Bartók National Concert Hall in Hungary and its US premiere at Stanford University on January 9, 2010.[1][2]

Structure edit

Mallet Quartet is in three movements, with its entirety lasting around 14 minutes:

  1. Fast
  2. Slow
  3. Fast

The second movement, slow, is one of his most thinly textured works with acoustic instrumentation, as admitted by Reich himself.[citation needed]

Performance edit

The piece can either be played with two marimbas and two vibraphones, or with four marimbas.

References edit

  1. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-13. Retrieved 2014-01-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ "So Percussion records Steve Reich's "Mallet Quartet"".