At the Zoo - BSN/TPT

At the Zoo

for bassoon and trumpet

by Tadd Russo

Set includes a performance score and separate Trumpet (in C) and Bassoon parts. Performed at the 2009 IDRS Conference in Birmingham, England.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

At the Zoo is a set of three short dances for trumpet and bassoon. The titles come from Mr. Palomar, Italo Calvino's collection of fictional essays in which Mr. Palomar observes the world around him. While the music was written before being titled, the imagery in Calvino's essays significantly matches the moods created in each movement. Musically, each dance explores a different interval: the first movement makes particular use of the major second; major and minor thirds form the building blocks of the second movement; and the final movement utilizes the minor second in an insistent way.

I. The giraffe race The first stop in Mr. Palomar's visit to the Vincennes zoo is the giraffes' yard. Calvino describes the seemingly uncoordinated movements of the giraffes as they charge the fence, spin around, and dash back again and again before abruptly stopping to rest. Mr. Palomar is transfixed by their movement, because they are at once harmonious and inharmonious.

II. The albino gorilla In the Barcelona zoo, Mr. Palomar pushes his way to the glass to see Snowflake, the albino gorilla. The gorilla turns to the crowd with a gaze of desolation and patience–a cumbersome presence. In the white beast's motionless immensity, Mr. Palomar senses the antiquity of pyramids and mountains.

III. The order squamata In the reptile house of the Paris zoo, Mr. Palomar observes the Iguanas. These cumbersome lizards are covered with a skin woven from tiny speckled scales and complemented with crests of spikes. The lizards continuously shift position with agile motions of elbows and knees.  As Mr. Palomar moves through the reptile house he notices that scales and quills seem to be passed from one display to the other in a random fashion–as if the species are constantly being shaped and reshaped

Premiere Info:

At the Zoo was premiered at West Liberty University, West Virginia in 2007 by Tama Kott, bassoon, and Matthew Inkster, trumpet. 

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Tadd Russo (b. 1976) serves as an arranger for the United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C., and teaches music technology at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.  He received his master's degree in composition from The Ohio State University, where his principal instructor was Thomas Wells.  He has studied film and Broadway orchestration with Steven Scott Smalley and Joe Gianono.  Tadd's music has been performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland), the OCEAn festival (Oberlin Conservatory), the Electrolune Festival (Lunel, France), the Society of Composers 2006 National Convention (San Antonio, Texas) and by the Dallas Wind Symphony (Dallas, Texas).  As an arranger/orchestrator, he has worked with Ben Vereen, Ronan Tynan, Darin Atwater’s Soulful Symphony, Empire Brass, and Kool and the Gang, among others.