Music department causes 'kerfuffle'
By Chelsea Cox
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: Culture
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According to Kenyon Wilson, conductor of the tuba/euphonium ensemble, the concert will feature two original pieces by UTC faculty.
"Kerfuffle," meaning "commotion" in German, is an original composition by Wilson.
"It's a fanfare, which is like the music that plays when a king comes into court," Wilson said.
Wilson said his inspiration for the piece was James Taranto, the Wall Street Journal editor who popularized the term "kerfuffle."
The piece is based on a mathematical equation which uses Taranto's name as a motive for the composition.
"I use people's names to create a motif, which is a musical idea," Wilson said.
He said composition of the piece took about two weeks.
"It's like an author writing a mystery novel," Wilson said. "There has to be a main character. When writing 'Kerfuffle' I decided to write a fanfare. I start with a bass line and move to the melody.
"When we get into the middle section, I start layering, where you get it from the left and right, front and back," Wilson said.
"The sections fight each other rhythmically," Wilson added. "By the time we have five groups trying to make their own point in a musical argument, it is a commotion."
Wilson said the tuba/euphonium ensemble is unique because a lot of schools don't have one.
"We're performing at the international tuba/euphonium conference in June in Cincinnati," Wilson said. "It's the first time a UTC group has performed [there]."
William Shacklett, a sophomore from Ashland, Tenn., and member of the tuba ensemble, said his favorite piece to play is "Bacchanale" by composer Camille Saint-Saëns.
"In a band setting tubas don't play much but quarter notes," Shacklett said. "This is the most challenging piece I've played so far."
"You see people play saxophones, flutes and trumpets all the time," Shacklett added. "When you see people playing tuba at a fast tempo it's really exciting. Most people don't know that a tuba can play the things we play."
Josh Smith, a Chattanooga freshman and member of the trumpet ensemble, said "Kerfuffle" is his favorite piece to play.
"We do a trade off, it's like a brass battle," Smith said.
Smith said he enjoys playing the original pieces the most.
"Some of the old stuff is really fun, but I like the new things people haven't heard before," Smith said.
"We're always trying to add new things to draw in more people," he said.
Shane Porter, conductor of the trumpet ensemble, said there will be a lot of variety in the pieces played.
"The trumpets are spanning 500 years worth of material," Porter said.
Porter said he encourages fans of music to come to the concert.
"A lot of brass is really exciting," Porter said. "You don't know how exciting it is until you experience it. It's a different stimuli for the senses."
