Honest

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Description +
- Duration: 4½ min.
  
  Honest is the first 5.0 octave advanced solo I've written since Skyward (2019). It is a representation of the feeling of receiving a person's honest and warm support in difficult times, giving you the strength and determination to move forward in the face of adversity.
  
  I wrote Honest for my partner Machi Ishida, who is a world-class solo marimbist based in Hiroshima, Japan. Machi's unwavering warm support of me and genuine nature made it easy for me to construct Honest, which references themes from popular music that represent both of our personalities - nostalgic Japanese music (there are alludes to Kenshi Yonezu's Lemon, Gen Hoshino Comedy, Ikimonogakari's Arigatou and Joe Hisashi's One Summer's Day in the melodic writing) and familiar Chinese pop (references to Mayday's Suddenly Missing You + Breakthrough Day, Eason Chan's King of Karaoke, Jay Chou Blue and White Porcelain + Simple Love).
Instrumentation +
- Marimba 5.0 Octave
Watch+
- Performance by Adam Tan
About the composer +
- Adam Tan is a marimba soloist, educator and composer based in Perth, Western Australia. Adam is most known for being a YouTube content creator on THE STUDIO, a self-produced YouTube show uploading weekly episodes for education and entertainment relating to percussion.
  
  Adam has performed and presented in-person in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and the United States, and has also presented online classes in Argentina, Central America and the United Kingdom. Highlights include solo performances at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), inc. percussion days (Japan), PAS Hong Kong Days of Percussion and Oh! Asian Percussionists Series (Hong Kong), Malaysia Percussion Festival, Chosen Vale Percussion Seminar (USA), Australian Percussion Gathering and masterclass presentations at the 505A Percussion Gathering (Hong Kong), MalletLab Summer Intensive (USA), WA Day of Percussion (Australia) and various universities and schools across Taiwan.
  
  As a composer, Adam's works for percussion are performed regularly as they appear in repertoire lists for auditions, examinations and competitions around the world, such as the UIL Texas Prescribed Music List (PML). Adam’s works can be listened to on all music streaming platforms and stores.
  
  Adam is the founder and director of Marimbafest Australia, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of percussive arts in Australia, curating various events including the annual marimba festival and competition Marimbafest, as well as the annual concert series Percussion All-Stars.
  
  Adam has a Master of Music (Research, Percussion) and Bachelor of Music (1st Class Hons) from the University of Western Australia Conservatorium of Music.
  
  Adam is a Marimba One Premier Artist and a Signature Artist of Encore Mallets with his own signature series of mallets. Adam's compositions are published by Edition Svitzer.
Reviews +
- Review (Percussive Notes, April 2025)
  
  This 4½-minute marimba solo is inspired by popular music of Japan and China, and it follows the compositional trajectory of a piano arrangement of a pop song. The keys mostly hover around D-major and C-major, and graduated mallets are suggested to facilitate the communication of chordal accompaniment supporting single-line melody.
  
  The melody is introduced in a simple fashion with sparse accompaniment broken chords in the left hand. After several sixteenth-note transitions, the “verse” that existed as basically a single-line melody is later presented with double-mallet harmony in the right hand and a more complex chord treatment in the left hand. This formula continues through another verse treatment that leads to a slower, more dramatic musical climax marked by fortississimo block chords that move into the melody in right-hand octaves with a rhythmically strong harmonic presentation.
  
  As the complexity unwinds, the solo concludes with a rhythmic and tempo respite that slowly dissipates into a single-line melodic goodbye, ending with an arpeggiated final chord traveling up the marimba.
  
  Marimba players who are not comfortable with piano-style broken-chord accompaniment might have difficulty digesting all of the left-hand movements and gestures, but with so many repeats of the harmonic material, familiarity with the chord sequence might prove to be an asset. All in all, this is a pleasant piece of music written in a style that is easy to grasp from an audience perspective and will be sure to imprint as a singable melody as they exit the concert hall.
  
  —Joshua D. Smith

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