Vic Firth Ensemble: MARASSA DUO
featuring James Armstrong & Nicholas Papador

The Marassa Duo brings together a wide variety of percussion styles and musical genres into a concise and unified whole. The group’s original programming provides a unique chamber setting that includes elements of traditional concert music, world music, mallet percussion, contemporary classical and jazz. The duo combines the talents of James Armstrong, a performer specializing in Afro-Cuban and West African folkloric music and Nicholas Papador, a performer specializing in marimba as well as contemporary and orchestral concert music. The result is a ground breaking and exciting chamber music that opens new musical worlds to its audiences.

The duo takes its name from the Marassa Twins, divine twins of the Haitian Vodou tradition who speak to us of twin souls that find each other lifetime after lifetime to interact as their karma dictates. Also exemplifying the belief of opposition and duality within the mortal world, the Marassa Twins constitute one of the more perplexing entities of the Haitian religion, beginning with the point that there are sometimes three of them. As anthropologist Maya Deren wrote, "In Vodoun, one and one make three." The Marassa are immensely powerful and are often interpreted as the “affirmation of cosmic unity."

The ensemble has recently released a full-length cd, which can be ordered through the groups website. Click here to visit the Marassa Duo website.

Song Roads
Nicholas Papador (2005)
In the ceremonies of Santeria, the orisha (deity) Ellegua is first to be honored for all occasions for he is the gatekeeper, the opener of roads and doors. The work contains material from six cantos (songs) for Ellegua.
These melodies are sometimes used in quotation, but are often merely suggested or harmonized. Other times only bell or clave rhythmic patterns are used to build textures in the marimba part. The batá part utilizes five toques (rhythms) for songs to Ellegua as well as generic toque rhythms such as Yakota, Serebase, and Wardo that are used more freely
throughout latter portions of a ceremony.

More about Song Roads...
In the ceremonies of Santeria, the orisha (deity) Ellegua is first to be honored for all occasions for he is the gatekeeper, the opener of roads and doors. The work contains material from six cantos (songs) for Ellegua. These melodies are sometimes used in quotation, but are often merely suggested or harmonized. Other times only bell or clave rhythmic patterns are used to build textures in the marimba part. The batá part utilizes five toques (rhythms) for songs to Ellegua as well as generic toque rhythms such as Yakota, Serebase, and Wardo that are used more freely throughout latter portions of a ceremony.

The work is scored for 5-octave marimba and 3 batá drums. The batá are two headed hourglass shaped drums that are the staple instrument in religious ceremonies of Santeria. Under normal circumstances, there is one player to a drum. For this piece, all three drums are performed by a solo player. That player is responsible for six playing surfaces, including open tone and slap melodies intermixed between the hands. The marimba part requires four mallets throughout and utilizes the instrument's full range, requiring a great deal of choreography on the part of the performer. The work as a whole should not be thought of as a marimba solo accompanied by drums, but rather as a true duet where melodic material is shared.

Pitched material or ostinati that do not reflect a canto melody are intended to draw the listener's attention more actively to the melodies and musical conversations inherent in the drums. Arpeggiated passages on the marimba are intended as musical transitions or "roads" that carry the listener to another canto or toque. It is from this premise that the title
of the work is derived.