Traditional: Grasshopper Playing Tricks on a Rooster
Instruments: One Marimba
台灣民謠：草螟弄雞公
Taiwanese folk songs usually depicts a scene of old time, simple village life in rural Taiwan. “Grasshopper” is a metaphor of a little girl, and "rooster" is a old man. The old man accumulated power and wealth, want to flirt with the girl. A grasshopper is a favorite prey of roosters. It is clear what would happen if a grasshopper tries to tease a rooster. So the original lyric is about how the young girl use her wisdom (tricks) to fight back to the elder man. Taiwanese folk songs usually present in sorrowful but also a wise self-comfort to look for excuse for difficult life in the old time.
This piece is transcribed by Twincussion from the piano arrangement of pianist Yi-Chih Lu. The idea of the piece is presenting the Taiwanese melody flows in diverse variations and approaches, both in a virtuosic and entertaining way. “Grasshopper playing tricks on a rooster” premiered in University of Texas in San Antonio in 2016. Since then it was widely been played by Twincussion in Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Japan and Taiwan
Passacaglia - The Impossible Duet by Handel/ Halvorsen
Arr. Twincussion
Instrument: Two Marimbas
韓德爾/霍芙森：帕薩加利亞
A passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre.
This piece is transcribed by Twincussion Duo, they got the inspiration from both George Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite in G minor and the arrangement by the Johan Halvorsen: „The Impossible Duet" for violin and cello.
The duo use different sound experiments on marimbas to imitate the strings' articulation and approaches. I.G. Playing on the edge of the bar to sound like a pizzicato…The arrangement keeps the delicacy of the strings and also shows the virtuosity and warm sound with the two marimba players.
Special thanks to Johan Bridger and Morten Friis for their kind and valuable advice for the arrangement.
GEt the music here
Album 雙子二重奏打擊樂專輯
This album introduces our favorite music and our own arrangement. “Passacaglia”, and “Dance Macabre", we love these two pieces very much and enjoy the beautiful classical music transcribed on marimbas; our commissioned pieces ”Layered Elements”, and “Drift”, this two were fully customized for us, we hope you like the twin spirit in them. Sometimes you just need some classics! “Marimba Spiritual II” is the one that gave us so much energy to present ourselves. We always look back to our root, Taiwan. When we played the folksongs in the concerts, they always bridged people together, made the audience feel like they are in Taiwan, and felt the stories behind the music. They are “Grasshopper Playing Tricks on a Rooster” and “Cloudy Sky”.
We hope you enjoy this album, make yourself being in the concert by listening to it, and experience the percussion journey together with us!
1. Cloudy Sky / Fu-Yu Lin / Arr. Yi-Chih Lu
天黑黑 / 林福裕 / 編曲：盧易之
2. Passacaglia / G.F.Handel / Arr. Halvorsen, Twincussion
帕薩加利亞 / 韓德爾 / 編曲：霍夫森、雙子二重奏
3. Drift / Garrett Mendelow
漂移 / 蓋瑞特·曼道勒
4. Danse Macabre / C. Saint-Saëns
骷髏之舞 / 卡米耶·聖桑
5. Layered Elements / Tomasz Goliński
分層元素 / 湯瑪斯·高林斯基
6. Marimba Spiritual II / Minoru Miki
木琴靈歌II / 三木稔
7. Grasshopper Playing Tricks on a Rooster / Traditional / Arr. Yi-Chih Lu
草螟弄雞公 / 編曲：盧易之