This dissertation examines the marimbists, multi-percussionists, and solo-percussionists who were independent classical soloists in the twentieth century. Traditionally, scholarship has seen the histories of these percussion soloists as separate from one another. By proposing new frameworks and contexts, this revisionist history shows how marimbists, multi-percussionists, and solo-percussionists form a continuum.

These frameworks mark pivotal shifts in history and include percussion practices, eras of percussion soloists, and generations. The “percussion practices” framework shows how composers have used percussion in classical music. The “eras of percussion soloists” framework shows what percussionists did and what percussion instruments they performed on. The “generations” framework shows how each particular solo art form evolved.