Leigh Howard Stevens

Leigh Howard Stevens (LHS, born March 9 1953) in Orange, New Jersey, and is a marimba artist best known for developing, codifying, and promoting the Stevens technique or Musser-Stevens grip, a method of independent four-mallet marimba performance based on the Musser grip.

tudies

Leigh Howard Stevens (LHS) studied under some of the most prominent percussion teachers and performers of his time, including jazz drummer Joe Morello, and marimbist Vida Chenoweth, who he studied with in New Zealand the summer after his freshman year of college. LHS pursued his college studies at the Eastman School of Music planning to be a drum set player. Stevens recalls, "I noticed when I got to Eastman that the techniques I was using--the one-handed roll, rotary strokes, doing Baroque trills with one hand, two-part Bach inventions, things like that--got a lot of attention. Other people seemed to think that I had a lot of talent on the marimba. I gradually began to realize that I had the potential of being a much better marimba player than I had of becoming a world-class drum set player." [Weiss, Lauren Vogel. “Leigh Howard Stevens.” "Percussive Notes", August, 2006.] Stevens' promptly switched to concert percussion, studied with John Beck and received a Performer's Certificate.

Method of Movement for Marimba

During the 1970s, LHS began writing down his thoughts and exercises he invented in order to facilitate the mastery of this new technique. The result was his pedagogical treatise "Method of Movement for Marimba," first published in 1979 by his own company, Marimba Productions. Now in its 6th edition, "Method of Movement for Marimba" was widely considered a revolutionary and highly detailed textbook which described Stevens' method for holding marimba mallets, efficient utilization of motion, and included over 500 musical exercises for the student. "Method of Movement" (often shortened to MOM) was the first textbook to fully describe a complete method for holding and playing with 4 mallets. LHS came up with the technique after learning several other grips and considers his technique an outgrowth of the Musser grip. The Stevens technique is defined by a vertical hand position (in contrast to the previous flat-palmed Musser player), pivoting around either unused mallet (instead of lifting the unused mallet out of the way), and moving the end of the inside mallet through the palm for larger intervals.

troke Types

Single Independent Strokes: the ability to strike single (or repeated single) strokes without moving the unused mallet held in that hand.

Single Alternating Strokes: executed as if they were alternating single independent strokes, these strokes consist of discrete, side to side rockings of the hand.

Double Vertical Strokes: a stroke that produces two pitches simultaneously. (It is somewhat of "double stop" with one hand).

Double Lateral Strokes: single motions that produce two successive pitches. It begins as a double vertical stroke but goes through a split second metamorphosis where one mallet strikes before the other. [Stevens, Leigh Howard. "Method of Movement for Marimba". Asbury Park: Keyboard Percussion Publications, 2000.]

Performance

Stevens' performance at the first PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Convention) in Rochester, New York in 1976 was a seminal event for all in attendance. For the first time, many percussion performers and teachers were seeing someone performing with a quasi-Musser grip but with an unprecedented degree of flexibility. Stevens was not attempting to revolutionize the percussion world; rather, he was merely performing in what he thought was a natural method for the marimba.

LHS continues to be an active performer and clinician worldwide and has appeared at a dozen Percussive Arts Society International Conventions (PASIC) since 1976, and served as Professor of Marimba at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England from 1997-2004. From 1980 to the present, he has held a three-week [http://www.mostlymarimba.com/bin/show.php?page=events/seminar_brochure.html Summer Marimba Seminar] in Ocean Grove, NJ where an average of 30 students from around the world come participate in an intensive study of music and the Stevens’ technique with LHS himself.

On November 10, 2006, Stevens was officially inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame during the 2006 PASIC in Austin, Texas. Also, LHS is an alumnus of Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. and was recently inducted into the school's Hall of Fame.

Marimba Productions, Inc.

Stevens started his own publishing company, Marimba Productions, in 1979 because he could not find a publishing company for his MOM manuscript. Still in business today, Marimba Productions Inc. is comprised of Malletech instruments and mallets, Keyboard Percussion Publications, and Resonator Records. Marimba Productions Inc. also includes acquisitions: Music Project, M.Baker Publications, Percussion Arts and Studio 4 Music. All of these companies are found on his website, MostlyMarimba.com [http://MostlyMarimba.com] . LHS is the president and CEO of the company which operates out of a convert|20000|sqft|m2|sing=on building in Neptune, New Jersey.

Works

Original Compositions

*"Rhythmic Caprice"

*"Great Wall"

Transcriptions

*"Christ Lag in Todesbanden" (J.S.Bach)

*"Album for the Young II" (Schumann)

*"Adventure's of Ivan" (Khachaturian)

*"Sonata in A Minor" (Bach)

*"Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Major" (Bach)

*"Album for the Young" (Tchaikovsky)

*"Sonata in B Minor" (Bach)

*"Two Part Inventions" (Bach)

*"Album for the Young I" (Schumann)

*"Children's Corner" (Debussy)

Major pieces written for or commissioned by Leigh Howard Stevens

*Robert Aldridge:

"From My Little Island" ²

*Jacob Druckman:

"Reflections on the Nature of Water" ¹

*Matthew Harris:

"Potpourri" ²

*Raymond Helble:

"Grand Fantasy in C Major"

"Toccata Fantasy in E-flat minor"

"Preludes for Marimba" (Nos. 1-3, Nos. 4-6, Nos. 7-9) "Concerto for Orchestra and Marimba"

"Concerto for Marimba and Percussion Ensemble"

"Movement for Marimba and Harpsichord"

"Two Movements for Marimba and String Quartet"

"Duo Concertante" (for marimba and violin)

*David Maslanka:

"Variations on Lost Love"

*William Penn:

"Four Preludes for Marimba"

*Roger Reynolds:

"Autumn Island" ¹

*Joseph Schwantner:

"Velocites" ¹

*John Serry:

"Rhapsody for Marimba, "Night Rhapsody"

"West Side Suite"

*Gordon Stout:

"Beads of Glass"

"Diptych No. 4"

"Route 666"

*Christopher Stowens:

"Atamasco and the Wooden Shalter"² (for Synthesized Tape and Amplified Marimba)

1 commissioned by a consortium of William Moersch, Gordon Stout, and Stevens

2 commissioned for LHS by Scott Stevens (no relation)

Discography

[http://www.mostlymarimba.com/bin/recording.php?pid=3 "Bach on Marimba"]

[http://www.mostlymarimba.com/bin/recording.php?pid=4 "Marimba When"]

References

Bibliography

Diliberto, John. “Marimba Missionary.” "Rhythm", January 1989.

Burritt, Michael. “An Interview with Leigh Howard Stevens.” "Percussive Notes", December, 1992.

External links

* [http://www.mostlymarimba.com/ Marimba Productions Inc.]
* [http://www.pas.org Percussive Arts Society]