Keiko Abe

This is a research paper I wrote for my rhetoric class last year. I have removed all the in-text citations, since I won't be putting any works-cited page up. I hope it is informative!

Keiko Abe's Marimba: More Than an Instrument

As she stepped up to the microphone to thank her peers for her acceptance into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame, one could only contrast her shy personality with the way she confidently approaches the marimba. Keiko Abe has dedicated her life and her profession to the marimba, and it reflects in her unique compositions, which have transformed the marimba into a vibrant, modern instrument.

Keiko Abe was born into a family of distinguished doctors and businesspeople. As a child, she studied many musical fields, including piano, composition, xylophone, and many percussion instruments. She received her first piano lesson at the age of five. In elementary school, she studied music on tabletop xylophones. Her class would give recitals on these toy sounding xylophones at hospitals and army bases. At age 12, she heard the marimba for the first time. The entrancing sounds made it easy to decide that this was her instrument of choice.

Despite originally studying medicine to please her father, she kept returning to her first love music. At age 25, she decided to specialize in the marimba after studying music, percussion, and composition at the Tokyo Gakugei University. At first, she tried to imitate jazz styles, such as those of Milt Jackson and Lionel Hampton. She quickly realized that jazz was other artists voices, not hers. Abe worked with composer and arranger Isao Tomito in a recording studio, ever defining a style all her own.

Abe has quickly attained worldwide recognition with her performances over the past 30 years. She specializes as a marimba virtuoso and with her technical perfection and also with her own compositions and arrangements she has attained for the marimba worldwide recognition as a solo instrument. In 1993, Abe became the first woman ever to be inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.

Teaching is yet another of the many talents of Ms. Abe. For over 30 years, she has worked with young marimbists at the Toho Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo. She also formed the Tokyo Quintet, consisting of a marimba, a flute, a clarinet, percussion, and a contrabass clarinet, in 1973.

The marimba was originally a folk instrument. At one time, it belonged to Latin American and jazz music. It is a percussion instrument, meaning it must be struck to produce sound. Mallets, yarn or rubber, are used to strike it, different levels of firmness projecting different volumes and timbres. In order to help project sound, resonators are placed beneath the bars to give a wider dynamic range. The bars are arranged like a piano. From its primitive origins with all the limitations they imply, Abe has transformed the marimba into a complete concert instrument. She believes the marimba may one day evolve into a new instrument.

Yamaha decided to manufacture marimbas in 1963. During the 1960s they consulted with Abe. She requested a wider dynamic range, an instrument that could project and carry sound, and adjustable resonators. The appearance should be unique, yet impressive . The new properties would give the performer full artistic ability, and resonant timbre. The tone bars were widened, the centers thickened . Each bar was suspended by a string at the node of the bar to remove any possibility of free vibration. The mellow sound was attained by increasing the area of the crosssection of the bar. In order to keep the low pitches deep and full, and the high pitches clean and bright, the low registers were slightly lowered, and the high registers were slightly raised.

The music of Abe is of a completely different nature than that of other composers.

"The marimba is very special to me," Abe said as she accepted her Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame award. "I listen carefully to understand its many possibilities. I have great respect for the marimba. When I play, I have a great desire to find its expressive possibilities knowing that at one time this most beautiful wood came from a living tree with its own history and experience. It is as if the marimba bar breathes like a living tree, and when I make music I want to breathe with it."

At the time when Keiko Abe first began composition, there were almost no works for the marimbas, so she wrote works herself. When she composes she concentrates on the unique possibilities of the marimba that other instruments dont have. She began writing in 1968. Abe first tried to imitate jazz styles, but she realized that her own unique style ensured concentration on stage. Abe also arranges older compositions.

Keiko Abe has written many well-known works. Wind in the Bamboo Grove, Memories of the Seashore, The Voice of the Matsuri Drums, Variations on Japanese Childrens Songs, Mi-Chi, Dream of the Cherry Blossoms, and Frogs are just some of the greatest works . When she writes, because she believes the expressive possibilities of the marimba are endless, her music communicates to listeners through real, human expression. Much of her work reflects on her connection to nature. This explains why her work is so rich and varied. Abe also composes on things she has heard or remembers.

The unique styles Abe has accomplished have received many prizes. She believes much of the marimba literature came about by playing over and over. By 1984, she had over 53 pieces dedicated to her. This fact reflects on her idea that superior performers are needed to create superior works. If the performer is a true musician, he should be able to give a moving recital on just one single marimba, Abe said. Anyone hearing her for the first time will be astonished by the modern marimbas wealth of nuances and the tremendous scope it can offer a musician. Abe believes performing should remain important to a marimbist. Marimbists should play music for the audience, not only technique, she said.

Keiko Abe has taught the worlds marimbists more than any other, and hopefully she'll continue for years to come.

Keiko Abe