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Imperial Marimba Symphony Orchestra
IMPERIAL MARIMBA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
120 Marimbas — 120 Marimbists
Clair Omar Musser, Conductor
A new cbapter in the history of music was written last month
in the presentation of a one hundred and twenty (120) piece
Marimba Symphony Orchestra which was featured in a two hour
concert April 18th in Convention Hall at Enid. Oklahoma. The
event was part of one of America's outstanding Musical Festivals,
held annually at Enid. Unprecendented successes were at-
tained during this year's Festival.
For the first time in the nine year Festival history of Conven-
tion Hall the auditorium's 4,000 seat capacity was overcrowded
and great numbers were turned away after the aisles were filled
by standing patrons.
Never before in the history of music was such a large and well
trained Marimba Orchestra presented.
The program included:
Suites of Carmen
Bizet
Allegro Ciocoso, Allegretto, Moderato, Allegro Moderato
Largo from The Nnv World Symphony
Dvorak
Supported by a choir of forty voices
Artist's Life Waltz
Strauss
Finlandia Tone Poem, With Choir
Sibelius
Emperor Waltz
Strauss
Co)icerto in G Minor (piano solo with orchestra) '
Third Movement Presto
Saint-Seans
Symphony in D Minor
Caesar Franck
Latin-American Suites
(A) Carioca — with maracas, guiros and claves
(B) Sibonex —with congas, quihadas and bongos
Coast To Coast Broadcast: Recordings Made
The Orchestra was heard Coast-to-Coast on a half hour broad-
cast over the M.B.S. network. A fine album of recordings was
made, and the new tonal effects realized by this Orchestra, "in
the words of eminent critics," are ethereal and beyond words of
description.
MAY,
1941
¥
Clair Omar Musser, Conductor
The Orchestra personnel of 120 Marimbists has been secured
from eleven States, and members are enrolled in thirty-three dif-
ferent Colleges and Universities. The entire organization was
under the personal guidance of Clair Omar Musser, Musical Di-
rector for ). C. Deagan, Inc., Chicago. Mr. Musser scored all
of the program music requiring special manuscript ol nearly
25,000 measures.
A trained choir of fortv voices is an integral part of the Or-
chestra vocalizing in "Largo" (from The Xew World Symphony)
and "Finlandia."
The Marimba, with its romantic four thousand year history,
is now fast becoming the most musically progressive instrument
of the day. Modern science has made it possible to produce
Marimbas with unprecedented tonal perfection in that the lunda-
mental frequencies are accurately tuned, and all discordant partials
and overtones are eliminated, while at the same time, desired
consonant harmonics are tuned and blended in the keyboard.
This is an envied
a c c o m p 1 i s h -
ment and a triumph
not yet realized by
other musical in-
st rumen t fabrica-
tors.
A brilliant hori-
zon with inspiriting
hope looms encour-
agingly before this
history-making ()r-
chestra and its bril-
liant young conduc-
tor, and the future
bids well for unpre-
cedented music suc-
cesses.
Clair Omar Musser
PA(;K T W K X T Y - O N E
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