Volume Pig: A review

The St. Olaf percussion ensemble held its spring recital last night. I've written about this group before. This year, their final number was "Volume Pig," which they also did a couple years ago. It's a great piece of music with a little performance art thrown in. The composer is Gareth Farr, a New Zealander with an impressive if strange resume. Read about him here and here.

"Volume Pig" was inspired by a rare breed of feral pig found in New Zealand which is said to stun its prey with a series of very loud screams and squeals and grunts. Last night's audience was warned first by Dave Hagedorn, the St. Olaf percussion teacher (who read us some old program notes about the pig), and second by the student conductor for this piece, Levi Comstock, who took the podium and very pointedly inserted foam plugs in his ears.

My ears did not hurt, but my face muscles were sore from smiling broadly throughout the piece. The student musicians, of whom I stand in awe, were working very hard (as the piece demands) but clearly having a ball.

Man, that was fun!

Re: Percussion

The St. Olaf percussion ensemble was outstanding as usual. Their recital last night had an unexpected treat for me: They played "Three Brothers." Written in 1948* by Michael Colgrass (then an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois), it has become an old standard for percussion ensemble. The piece uses ten drummers on fairly traditional instruments (marimba, cowbell, snare, tom-tom, bongo, triangle, timpani, bass drum, wood blocks, etc.). The music, now almost 60, has aged well.

When I was a junior in high school, "Three Brothers" was just sixteen years old. My drum teacher, the legendary Harold Firestone, arranged it for seven musicians and we took it on the road, appearing as guests of several small orchestras in the region. It was a rewarding experience and we felt a little like rock stars, although we were our own roadies and there weren't many screaming teenage girls greeting us at the stage door.

Anyway, it was a very pleasant surprise -- a reunion of sorts -- to hear "Three Brothers" again.

* Hagedorn said this in his introductory remarks, but the publisher of the sheet music says it was copyrighted in 1951.