All profits from this arrangement will be donated to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund

INSTRUMENTATION: 4 marimbas, 4 vibraphones, glockenspiel, pair of hand cymbals, tambourine, triangle, ratchet, b-flat trumpet

PERFORMANCE NOTES: This percussion arrangement of the Pines of Rome 1st movement, pini di Villa Borghese by Ottorino Respighi is an adaptation of an arrangement performed for the mixed interdisciplinary ensemble, Dark by Five (violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, piano, and percussion).

Although this is written for six marimbas, you can also perform the piece using four marimbas (4-octave) and four vibraphones. Marimba players 1 and 4 can share a marimba, as well as marimba players 5 and 6.  At one moment, marimba 4 is instructed to switch to an unused marimba (5/6). The trumpet player has some vibraphone glissandi written into the part. It would require a fifth vibraphone and is optional. A video recording of the piece is available at paulfadoul.com/media.

IN RESPIGHI’S WORDS: The Pine Trees of the Villa Borghese. Children are at play in the pine groves of Villa Borghese; they dance round in circles, they play at soldiers, marching and fighting, they are wrought up by their own cries like swallows at evening, they come and go in swarms.