The Sunken Cathedral (marimba version)

Composed by Claude Debussy, performed by Brian Graiser.

The Sunken Cathedral is one of Debussy's best-known works for solo piano, and has been a personal favorite of mine for years. When I first heard it, I promised myself that I would transcribe it for solo 4-octave vibraphone, and when the time came that I ordered such an instrument, I sat down and fulfilled that promise, in anticipation of my first Master's Recital. However, when my recital rolled around, the vibraphone was not yet in my possession, and so I had to draw up contingency plans. My solution was to use the most resonant marimba at our school (as it happened in this case, a five-octave Marimba One), and surrounded it with four large tam-tams. The resulting resonance is subtle, but the effect in the live performance was truly ethereal; hopefully some of that quality has been preserved on this recording. It isn't exactly what I had envisioned when I first transcribed it for vibraphone, but this version seems to work fairly well on the marimba. Nonetheless, I plan to perform this piece as I intended (on a 4-octave vibraphone) within the next 5-6 months, and hopefully I'll be able to post a video of that as well.

This video is of a live performance from my Master's Degree Recital on May 12, 2009 in Walter Hall at the University of Toronto. Special thanks to Tyler Kerr for the video recording and Peter Olson for the audio recording.

This transcription will soon be available for purchase upon request.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Debussy
• Sunken Cathedral
• marimba
• solo
• Brian Graiser

[bgraiser]

I'm a little amazed people are still taking an interest in this video, but very grateful! I'll be recording the transcription as I intended (for 4-octave vibraphone) next week; hopefully I'll be able to put that video up soon!

[wilesnic2]

Nice brian. This is Nic Wiles, just stumbled on this by accident.

[MrJspowers2]

yea man, sounds great, I'd love to get a copy of this transcription if you're selling

[clairebear0713]

Wow! Great performance. I always knew that you'd be here in youtube showin off your marimba skillz one day! : )

[nathanpiazza]

@bgraiser I kind of had to eat my words because you did use the lower octave earlier, but I expected it at the very beginning! Nonetheless, awesome performance and transcription. I love this piece.

[bgraiser]

@nathanpiazza I agree that it would have been nice to incorporate the lowest octave more, but please bear in mind that this transcription was intended for 4-octave vibraphone. I ended up playing it on marimba simply because the vibraphone was not in my possession at that time, and I thought it would be.

[iwantin01]

THIS IS SO COOL.

[RHCPDMBxxx33]

This is Fantastic. You said that the music would be available on request. How much? Im serious I love this piece, and I can't find an arrangement for marimba anywhere else.