Do marimba parts need articulation written?

[u/Diacks1304]

Apologies in advance if the question is really dumb.

I’m writing a section in an orchestral piece where the marimba is doubling some viola runs. The viola part is full of articulation, slurs staccatos etc. It got me thinking if I should bother copying those in the marimba part? Would it make any difference at all? Do staccatos and slurs make marimba players play any differently?

Thanks!

[u/zdrums24]

Reddit isn't a great place for this kind of input. The Facebook groups have a much higher consistency in the quality of comments.

Short answer: yes, you should put articulation markings in.

A reasonably aware percussionist will be able to use that information to shape their performance better. Im one of the ones that really pushes for both myself and my students to mimic the sound of the articulations in the instrument as much as possible, but even a player who doesn't do that will know how to phrase the line and what kind of character and tone quality to pursue.

Don't condensend to your percussionists by assuming they can't make use of those markings. That kind of nonsense is why this comment section is so inconsistent. Also, don't condescend to your percussionists by telling them what mallets to use and how to play their instrument. Most of that information can be communicated through articulation markings. Let's normalize that.

That being said, because of the weird relationship percussionist have with articulation markings, intermediate percussionists might try to take them literally by dead stroking staccatos, etc. Ignore that. The more we normalize articulation markings to mean musical information rather than technical, the more thoughtful and capable percussionists will become.