The website description for Detour, as well as the hard copy score, indicate that the required instrumentation includes a shared marimba. https://www.tapspace.com/percussion-ensemble/detour/

Both of these descriptions also clearly show two marimbas in the suggested setup. The written music requires two marimbas. For example, at Rehearsal A the two marimba parts are written to be played on the same pitches, meaning two players cannot play these parts while sharing an instrument.

There is also a stray treble clef sign in the Marimba 2 part in Measure 42 (likely a copy/paste holdover from Measure 20).

The shared marimba issue is the main one and is quite misleading and confusing. The score notes that marimba parts can be doubled if desired. With shared marimba parts, Detour can accommodate twice as many marimba players as there are instruments. Not so with non-shared parts.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for pointing this out. I'm surprised we haven't heard about this yet, but clearly, this needs to be addressed in our next printing.

By the looks of it (this piece is a few years old, so my memory is fuzzy), it's really designed more to be played on two separate marimbas. But it's clearly not been outlined that way in the product description or in some parts of the music where the parts intersect.  I'll check with Brian about this so we can make the necessary corrections and hopefully avoid future confusion.

In the meantime, here's what I suggest [u]if you need to have marimba players sharing one instrument[/u]:

1) At Rehearsal A, each marimba player would simply play the top (M1) or bottom (M2) note of their part until they reach bar 14, at which point they'd return to playing the part as written.

2) At Rehearsal D, M2 would only play the bottom note on any octave double-stops through bar 36.

3) Two bars before Rehearsal F, have M1 play their part an octave higher. (Not ideal, but I don't think there's another option).

4) At Rehearsal G, M2 plays only bottom note through bar 66.

If you do it this way (having M1 and M2 share one instrument) and you have another player or two and another marimba, feel free to double one (or both) of the marimba parts on that secondary instrument.

I apologize for not catching these mistakes in the initial editing process. That's definitely on us, and not something I'd normally expect to slip through the cracks! Let me know if you have any questions on the above suggestions.

Thanks, Jim. I would love to hear a reaction from Brian about how this happened, because, as you point out it's possible with some simple adjustments (and some potential elbow banging) to play both marimba parts on one instrument. I'm left wondering if this was the intent of the composition or not.

My percussion ensemble has two marimbas, so I think I will just go that route. Stage space is always an issue since the percussion ensemble performs in conjunction with two concert bands. The stage incorporates an entire concert band percussion setup, plus extra instruments only needed for percussion ensemble (usually a second marimba, vibes, bells, etc., as well as a drumset). I picked three pieces for our concert this spring that all could be performed on a single marimba. This piece wrecks that planning, but I can deal.

Tapspace always provides clear instrumentation requirements on the website, which usually makes figuring these things out before purchasing an easy task. In fact, with the resources provided online, I could have picked up on this issue before making a purchase, but I didn't.

It's definitely our fault for the confusion, and you shouldn't have had to spot this in advance of programming it. Apologies again for the extra stage clutter!

Got another for you on this piece, Jim. It's not the marimba part, but I didn't think this was worth a new thread.

The scores specifically notes that the timpanist needs to change from C to D and then back to C early in the piece. However, there are also Ds in the piece at the end, in bars 75-77. The timpanist needs to do a quick change in bar 74.