INTRODUCTION OF THE DUNCAN TECHNIQUE, A NEW EIGHT-MALLET TECHNIQUE BASED ON THE STEVENS METHOD, THROUGH EXERCISES AND A NEW WORK FOR MARIMBA

Abstract

This document introduces a new Stevens-based eight-mallet technique for keyboard percussion, the Duncan technique. The limited body of eight-mallet literature reveals an equally limited pool of performers and composers, none of which utilize a Stevens-based technique. My new technique offers additional range, increased individual mallet independence, and a direct transfer of pre-existing coordination from the four-mallet Stevens technique in the form of mallet pairs. This is a distinctively effective feature in the transfer from four to eight mallets that is absent from traditional and Burton-based approaches. Exercises written for the development of this technique are included and organized by physical function, like the foundational text and exercises presented in Leigh Howard Stevens’s Method of Movement for Marimba. A technical analysis of my new piece, Stalactite, Stalagmite, Column, demonstrates the efficacy of double-single independent strokes, double-double laterals, and dense eight-mallet rolls. These techniques, among others to be discussed in the document, are innovative applications of the technique’s distinctive mallet pairs.