Leigh Howard Stevens
Encyclopedia
Leigh Howard Stevens 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. He was childhood friends with Max Weinberg
, member of E Street Band
and former band leader for The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
, and marimbist Vida Chenoweth
, with whom he studied 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." Stevens' promptly switched to concert percussion, studied with John Beck and received a Performer's Certificate.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 20000 square feet (1,858.1 m²) building in Neptune, New Jersey.
Reflections on the Nature of Water 1
Potpourri 2
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)
Variations on Lost Love
Four Preludes for Marimba
Autumn Island 1
Velocites 1
Rhapsody for Marimba, "Night Rhapsody"
West Side Suite
Beads of Glass
Diptych No. 4
Route 666
Atamasco and the Wooden Shalter2 (for Synthesized Tape and Amplified Marimba)
1 commissioned by a consortium of William Moersch, Gordon Stout, and Stevens
Marimba When
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
artist best known for developing, codifying, and promoting the Stevens technique
Stevens technique
The Stevens technique is a method of playing keyboard percussion instruments with four mallets – two in each hand. It was developed by marimba player Leigh Howard Stevens during his studies at the Eastman School of Music in the 1970s, and codified in his 1979 book Method of Movement for...
or Musser-Stevens grip, a method of independent four-mallet marimba performance based on the Musser grip. He was childhood friends with Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
, member of E Street Band
E Street Band
The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...
and former band leader for The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show that featured Conan O'Brien as host from June 1, 2009 to January 22, 2010 as part of NBC's long-running Tonight Show franchise...
Studies
Leigh Howard Stevens (LHS) studied under some of the most prominent percussion teachers and performers of his time, including jazz drummer Joe MorelloJoe Morello
Joseph Albert Morello was a jazz drummer best known for his 12½-year stint with The Dave Brubeck Quartet. He was frequently noted for playing in the unusual time signatures employed by that group in such pieces as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo à la Turk"...
, and marimbist Vida Chenoweth
Vida Chenoweth
Vida Chenoweth was the first professional solo classical marimbist. Also a noted ethnomusicologist and linguist, she was inducted into The Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1985 for her contributions to those three fields....
, with whom he studied in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
the summer after his freshman year of college. LHS pursued his college studies at the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
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
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
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." 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 is widely considered a revolutionary and highly detailed textbook which describes Stevens' method for holding marimba mallets, efficient utilization of motion, and includes 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 techniqueStevens technique
The Stevens technique is a method of playing keyboard percussion instruments with four mallets – two in each hand. It was developed by marimba player Leigh Howard Stevens during his studies at the Eastman School of Music in the 1970s, and codified in his 1979 book Method of Movement for...
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.
Stroke 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
Double stop
A double stop, in music terminology, is the act of playing two notes simultaneously on a melodic percussion instrument or stringed instrument...
" 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.
Performance
Stevens' performance at the first PASIC (Percussive Arts SocietyPercussive Arts Society
The Percussive Arts Society is an international music service organization promoting percussion education, research,performance and appreciation.Established in 1961 as a non-profit, music service organization,...
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
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
in London, England from 1997-2004. From 1980 to the present, he has held a three-week 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
Percussive Arts Society
The Percussive Arts Society is an international music service organization promoting percussion education, research,performance and appreciation.Established in 1961 as a non-profit, music service organization,...
Hall of Fame during the 2006 PASIC in Austin, Texas. Also, LHS is an alumnus of Columbia High School
Columbia High School (New Jersey)
Columbia High School is a four-year comprehensive regional public high school located at 17 Parker Avenue in Maplewood, New Jersey, which serves students in grades nine through twelve within the South Orange-Maplewood School District, which includes Maplewood and South Orange Townships...
in Maplewood, New Jersey
Maplewood, New Jersey
Maplewood is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 23,867.-History:...
. 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. comprises MalletechMalletech
Malletech LLC is a manufacturer of mallet percussion instruments and mallets formed in 1982 by Marimba Productions, Inc. The company sells its own line of marimbas, xylophones, and glockenspiels...
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 20000 square feet (1,858.1 m²) building in Neptune, New Jersey.
Transcriptions
- Christ Lag in Todesbanden (J.S.Bach)
- Album for the Young II (SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
)
- 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
- Jacob DruckmanJacob DruckmanJacob Druckman was an American composer born in Philadelphia. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 and 1950 he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood and later continued his studies at the École Normale de...
:
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 MaslankaDavid MaslankaDavid Maslanka is a U.S. composer who writes for a variety of genres, including works for choir, wind ensemble, chamber music and symphony orchestra....
:
Variations on Lost Love
- William Penn:
Four Preludes for Marimba
- Roger Reynolds:
Autumn Island 1
- Joseph SchwantnerJoseph SchwantnerJoseph C. Schwantner is a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer and educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize....
:
Velocites 1
- John Serry, Jr.:
Rhapsody for Marimba, "Night Rhapsody"
West Side Suite
- Gordon StoutGordon StoutGordon Stout is an American percussionist, composer, and educator specializing in the marimba.He studied composition with Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, and Warren Benson, and percussion with James Salmon and John Beck...
:
Beads of Glass
Diptych No. 4
Route 666
- Christopher Stowens:
Atamasco and the Wooden Shalter2 (for Synthesized Tape and Amplified Marimba)
1 commissioned by a consortium of William Moersch, Gordon Stout, and Stevens
Discography
Bach on MarimbaMarimba When