Thoughts on "Rain" for Marimba Ensemble and Track

My path to composition was not a traditional one. I started out as a Juilliard trained performer and a teacher. Eventually I became bored and I began venturing into new territory. I desperately wanted a new outlet to be creative but composition never actually crossed my mind. It was producing that initially peaked my interest. I had a lot of friends who were in the producing world and something about it fascinated me. As a classically trained musician, I had always been taught that using one's ear and "listening" was something that was done primarily through notes, tone, color, and balance. I marveled over the idea that in the world of producing, the ear took on a much larger role as "what was heard" went beyond the music. The actual "sound" itself became so important. That's not to say it wasn't important before but producing seemed to add a third dimension. This was definitely something I could explore.

I have always felt that the modern marimba lacked enough character to be a serious instrument and I have always wanted to play a role in developing it further. I felt that learning about producing was a way I could essentially get inside of the sound and create characters that touched new audiences. I started making tracks using pro tools and eventually logic. I built up a small collection of mics and started to record myself. I experimented a lot with everything from samples, stock sounds, and even my voice. All throughout I watched tons of videos to learn as much as I could. Over time my ears changed dramatically. I started to hear everything!

At the time I didn't realize it but in making the tracks I was technically composing music. I just didn't see it that way. In fact I didn't even write a single note until a few years later. It's safe to say that I definitely came to composing through producing. Looking back I think I just wanted to know more about music and how it was actually made beyond the notes. Once I understood that process, writing the actual notes became easy.

"Rain" is ultimately about embracing the randomness in creativity and life.

Rain was developed during this time. I had sampled a few water sounds for several different projects I was working on. I made a few core beats from these samples. You can hear one of them in Rain today. One evening, I developed an improvisation around this beat playing several marimba parts with 1 mallet in each hand. At the time I had no clear ideas for the music except that it was inspired by the water beat I had made. I recorded it and put it away.

Nothing much happened after that. Remember, at the time I was still technically not coming at this stuff from the vantage point of a composer. As far as I was concerned I was simply experimenting. It wasn't until much later when I was actually "writing music" that I went back, listened, and realized that I had a piece that was attempting to create a rudimentary sonic representation of rain using the marimba as the primary musical vehicle. I went through it note for note and transcribed it into Sibelius.

At this point I basically had a beat with marimba parts. It was interesting and it sounded really cool. I gave the parts to my students at NYU and we gave a trial performance on one of our Marimba Ensemble Concerts in 2012. However, I still felt like something was missing. It wouldn't be until later when I formed Boyar Music Studios that I would finally build a track around the music in order to publish a full version of "Rain." I should backtrack here for a moment and point out that prior to developing the published version, I had actually tried to build a track around the music on several occasions but I could never get it right. Looking back, I can now see that I lacked the production experience and the ears to bring my ideas to fruition. This is no longer a problem.

As with most of my music, there is a metaphor at work. "Rain" is ultimately about embracing the randomness in creativity and life. It can be a very painful process at times, but it is something that (at least for me) must be practiced. Flexibility is an art form unto itself and it is by far the most natural order of things. My artistic development is no exception and "Rain" is a culmination of not only this process but more importantly, this philosophical understanding. Nobody can predict how or where the drops of Rain will fall but when embraced it's truly beautiful and sometimes there's even a rainbow afterwards.

Copies of Rain for Marimba Ensemble and Track by Simon Boyar can be purchased here.