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Dead Elvis
Subtitle: For Solo Bassoon and Chamber Ensemble
General Info
Year: 1993
Duration: c. 8:45
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Peer Music Classical
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - Rental | Score Only (print) - $29.95
Instrumentation
Full Score
Solo Bassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
C Trumpet
Bass Trombone
String Bass
Violin
Percussion, including:
- Bongos, large and small
- Brake Drum, large
- Cowbell, large
- Crotales
- Ride Cymbal, large
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Dead Elvis (1993) was commissioned by Boston Musica Viva and Chuck Ullery, principal bassoonist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. It is more than a coincidence that it is scored for the same instrumentation as Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat (1918) in which a soldier sells his violin and his soul to the devil for a magic book. In Dead Elvis, the bassoon is Elvis (or perhaps an Elvis impersonator). Does this rock star sell out his Southern folk authenticity to the sophisticated professionalism of Hollywood movies, Colonel Parker and Las Vegas in order to attain great wealth and fame?
Dead Elvis goes far beyond this romantic Faustian scenario. For me, the two clashing Elvis images (the hip, beautiful, genius, thin, rock-and-roll Elvis versus the vulgar, cheesy, fat, stoned, Las Vegas Elvis) serve as a sturm und drang compositional algorithm. Further, my use of the dies irae (a medieval Latin chant for the Day of Judgement) as the principal musical theme of Dead Elvis signifies yet another aspect of the Elvis myth: some people believe Elvis is dead, while others believe he is alive and well in Kalamazoo. Perhaps the question is not whether Elvis is alive or dead, but why the phenomenon of Elvis endures beyond the grave of Graceland. Elvis, for better or worse, is part of American culture, history and mythology. If you want to understand America and all its riddles, sooner or later you will have to deal with (Dead) Elvis.
- Program Note by composer
Media
- Audio: Reference recording. Ensemble and conductor unknown
- Audio CD: Charles Ullery and David Zinman and London Sinfonietta - 2006
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- University of South Florida (Tampa) Wind Ensemble (Matthew McCutchen, conductor; Fernando Traba, bassoon) 18 September 2022
- Michigan State University (East Lansing) Wind Symphony Chamber Players (Rebekah Daniel, conductor; Octavius Hernandez, bassoon) - 29 October 2020
- Stephen F. Austin State University Wind Ensemble (Fred J. Allen, conductor) – 17 October 2017
- University of Georgia (Athens) Hodgson Wind Ensemble (Cynthia Johnston-Turner, conductor; Amy Pollard, bassoon) – 20 January 2017
Works for Winds by This Composer
Adaptable Music
- Made for You and Me: Inspired by Woody Guthrie (Adaptable Band) (2020)
All Wind Works
- American Gothic (tr. Daugherty and Galyen) (2013/2019)
- Asclepius (2007)
- Alligator Alley (2003)
- Bells for Stokowski (2002)
- Bizarro (1993)
- Brooklyn Bridge (2005)
- Dead Elvis (1999)
- Desi (1991)
- Dreamachine (2014/2022)
- Labyrinth of Love (2012)
- Ladder to the Moon (2005)
- Lift Up Thine Ears (2021/2022)
- Lost Vegas (2011)
- Made for You and Me: Inspired by Woody Guthrie (Adaptable Band) (2020)
- Motown Metal (1994)
- Niagara Falls (1997)
- Of War and Peace (2017)
- On the Air (2012)
- Raise the Roof (2007)
- Red Cape Tango (tr. Spede) (1993/1999)
- Reflections on the Mississippi for Tuba and Band (2013)
- Rio Grande (2015)
- Rosa Parks Boulevard (2001)
- Songs from a Silent Land (2019)
- Timbuktuba (1995)
- UFO (2000)
- Vulcan (2014)
- Winter Dreams (2015)
Resources
- Daugherty, M. (1993). Dead Elvis: For Chamber Ensemble [score]. Peer-Southern Concert Music: New York.
- Michael Daugherty website Accessed 1 January 2017