Composer Michael Markowski (b. 1986) claims that he is “fully qualified to watch movies and cartoons” on the basis of his bachelors degree in film from Arizona State University. Despite this humility regarding his musical training, he is gaining attention as a composer of unique and sophisticated works for wind band and other media. His works are being performed across the United States, leading to an ever-growing list of commissions for new works.
Turkey in the Straw came out of Markowski’s early association with Manhattan Beach Music after winning the first Frank Ticheli Composition Contest. Publisher Bob Margolis introduces the piece in the score:
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.
Markowski himself follows that with a good, substantial program note:
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 what 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 a 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 the orchestration and contrapuntal 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.
Here is the piece as realized by the US Air Force Band of the Golden West:
There far too many versions of Turkey in the Straw to list here. Here’s one played straight on the fiddle, which is how the tune first came into being:
Here’s another old version from a black and white movie, complete with comic hayseeds and questionable lyrics:
Here’s the Steamboat Willie that Markowski mentioned above. Its treatment of Turkey in the Straw starts around the 4 minute mark:
One final bonus video: Turkeys Gone Loco!!