Berliner Kindl (1989)
Berliner Kindl Duet (2006)
by Tristan Fuentes
(notes
by the composer)
Berliner Kindl is the offspring of a potent tour experience.
The year was 1989, and my group Zeitgeist was on a 9-week European tour.
3 of
those weeks we toured with Terry Riley, during which time we learned 2 new
pieces while in rehearsal phase at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
At one point in rehearsal, Terry was making the piano sound like a guitar,
and that was the germ for this piece. He was jamming in a seductive
mode of North African influence. Later, after Terry had gone home,
I wrote this solo for marimba when the Zeitgeist quartet was playing at Badenscher
Hof in Berlin. During the day, the club manager encouraged us to come
in and practice, and have a freebie lunch with the staff. - T.F.
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This evening's performance of Berliner Kindl Duet is its premiere.
The marimba part is the same as the solo version, while the vibraphone part
functions in a secondary role as a highlite to the main voice. The
sustain quality of the vibraphone, or its ability to keep vibrating after
being struck, is aspect of the instrument that makes a welcome complement
to the quickly vanishing sound of the marimba.