I just got back from a photo shoot with a crazy good photographer, Dimitri Sherman, of the24studio.com. Dimitri hails all the way from Russia so you can bet there was some vodka involved… can’t argue with the method of a master. I won’t spam my own blog with photos of me, but if you want to see a few others, check out the album on my myspace page or Dimitri’s myspace page. 

It’s been a heckuva long time, but Turkey in the Straw is finally hot of the presses! Don’t be fooled by the seemingly simple folktune; this piece is easily a not-so-easy grade IV piece. About it, Bob Margolis writes:

“When we asked Frank Ticheli Composition Contest Winner Michael Markowski to create a concert band arrangement of the fiddle tune, Turkey in the Straw, we were figurin’ to get a ‘merican-soundin’ creation. Square dance, anyone? No way.

Instead it was ‘Fire up the Markowski Phantasmagoricon!’ and hold on tight.

Markowski has created, in effect, Turkeys Gone Loco — music for a wild cartoon, a crazy surrealist extravaganza, an eclectic, filmic frolic. In a work overflowing with ideas, yet tightly wound and carefully crafted, Markowski has composed a Turkey in the Straw of today’s Zeitgeist.”

I don’t know about all that, but it is fun. Here are my program notes for the piece:

“We all know the melody, even if not by name. But for me, Turkey in the Straw is nostalgic, beckoning back to a childhood where grandma and grandpa would sit me in front of their TV with a bowl of orange Jell-O (in a small room papered wall-to-wall with decorative clowns), to watch old-time cartoons on VHS. From its early days in vaudeville to its silver-screen premiere in Disney’s cartoon, Steamboat Willie (1928), the tune has become a staple of Americana (and my favorite — cartoons).

Most arrangements stay true to the song’s Southern roots. But for a contemporary ensemble such as the concert band, I wanted my arrangement to be somewhat Ivesian, and, as colleagues have described it, closer to Quirky in the Straw. Above all, I wanted this piece to resemble classic cartoon scoring. Rather than simply arranging the brief melody in a handful of contrasting styles (as is typical of theme-and-variations), the form instead takes on an almost storytelling narrative or three act structure. 

Each successive treatment of the melody increases in orchestration and con trapuntal complexity, starting with the simplest orchestration within the first 35 measures. The melody quickly modulates, twists and turns, loses itself and finds itself in musical vignettes (already in development by measure 36). Each new scene seems to bring its own musical plot, orchestrational characterization, and many a custard pie in the face.”

Dr. Keith Kinder wrote a musical analysis of Turkey in the Straw that will be printed in MBM Times Issue No. 4 this December (Midwest). For those of you who know Dr. Kinder, he also wrote a fascinating analysis of Shadow Rituals about two years ago.

To listen to an awesome recording read by the ASU Wind Symphony, click here. After listening, why not post a comment about what you thought?

A few days, with the help of yours truly and Word Press, Brandon and I did a total make over on his website, sociallyacceptable.org. Some of you know that sociallyacceptable.org is the home of Laborliss Magazine, Brandon’s fictional lifestyle magazine set in the fictional town of Laborliss. In addition to the last six issues all being uploaded to the website in PDF format for free, there is still more to be had including some viral videos and even a few Laborliss crossword puzzles (as if you had nothing better to do with your time). Still, the site is clean, fresh, and totally functional. Check it out.