Michael Daugherty - Dead Elvis

MICHAEL DAUGHERTY DEAD ELVIS for small chamber ensemble

Dead Elvis was co-commissioned by Chuck Ullery, the Grand Tetons Festival and Boston Musica Viva. The first West Coast performance took place July 1993 at the Grand Tetons Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with Chuck Ullery, bassoonist, and Michael Daugherty conducting. The first East Coast performance took place in October 1993, at the University of Michigan, with Richard Pittman conducting the Boston Musica Viva, and George Sakakeeny playing bassoon.

No rock and roll personality seems to have inspired as much speculation, adulation, and impersonation as Elvis Presley (1935-77). In Dead Elvis (1993), the bassoon soloist is an Elvis impersonator accompanied by a chamber ensemble. It is more than a coincidence that Dead Elvis 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. I offer a new spin on this Faustian scenario: a rock star sells out to Hollywood, Colonel Parker, and Las Vegas for wealth and fame. I use Dies irae—a medieval Latin chant for the Day of Judgment—as the principal musical theme in my composition to pose the question, is Elvis dead or alive beyond the grave of Graceland? In Dead Elvis we hear fast and slow fifties rock and roll ostinati in the double bass, violin, and bongos, while the bassoonist gyrates, double-tongues, and croons his way through variations of Dies irae.

Elvis is part of American culture, history, and mythology, for better or for worse. If you want to understand America and all its riddles, sooner or later you will have to deal with (Dead) Elvis.

— Michael Daugherty

Dead Elvis is recorded by the London Sinfonietta, conducted by David Zinman, on an Argo CD devoted to Michael Daugherty’s chamber music entitled American Icons (458 145-2).

First printed in 2000.

Photo: The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Instrumentation E-flat Clarinet (may also be performed on Bb Clarinet) Solo Bassoon (Elvis Las Vegas 1970’s jumpsuit is recommended, but optional) C Trumpet [mutes: Harmon (stem in), Plunger, Straight Metal] Bass Trombone (may also be performed on Tenor)[mutes: Harmon (stem in), Plunger, Straight Metal] Percussion (1 player)

1. large brake drum 2. bongo (large) 3. bongo (small) 4. large cowbell 5. crotale (high D) 6. large ride ping cymbal

Violin Contrabass Score in C Duration: ca. 8 ½ min.

Note: All glissandi should be greatly exaggerated

Stage Arrangement Percussion

Trumpet Trombone

Clarinet

Violin Contrabass

Conductor

Bassoon Soloist (standing)

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