Duet for two marimbas

Skylark Orange Circles is dedicated to the wonderful Japanese marimba virtuoso, Momoko Kamiya. The music is very dance-like in quality, going over and over through mostly the same sequence of harmonies while melodic variations are developed. The melodic ideas become more and more like a bird (or flute) singing as the work progresses.

Says Stout of the piece, “A ‘skylark’ is a bird (lark) that sings as it rises skyward. I sometimes see colors for certain pieces of music, and this music always struck me as having the color of orange associated with it. Therefore, as the music continually dances in a circular and joyful fashion, the ‘skylark’ sings in the orange sky.”

Watch Marco Schirripa and Andrew Dobos perform Gordon Stout’s Skylark Orange Circles.