Wisconsin native Erika Svanoe (b. 1976) is a conductor and composer with several engaging and eclectic works to her name. Her piece The Haunted Carousel won the NBA Young Band Composition Contest in 2014, and her Steampunk Suite for band has appeared everywhere from Wisconsin Public Radio to the American Bandmasters Association conference. After undergraduate studies in Music Education and clarinet at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, she studied conducting at Oklahoma State University and The Ohio State University. After a spell conducting the Augsburg University Wind Symphony in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she is now a full-time comoposer. She is also an avid gamer and game designer. Learn more about her at her website and Board Game Geek. She has also been interviewed by her alma mater.
Svanoe wrote Tutued Toucan Can-Can in 2021 on a commission from Arris Golden and the Spartan Youth Wind Symphony. It may have the best title of any piece of music ever written. She explains (from her website):
The majestic and noble toucan dons its tutu and prepares for its grand entrance. What will the toucan ballet entail? Nimble hops on delicate legs? Short but graceful flights across the stage? Rousing kicks? Dramatic splits? Perhaps the grand movement of its large, brightly colored beak would be the most effective use of its greatest asset. The toucan, inspired by other great birds of ballet, enters the stage, and begins to dance.
Tutued Toucan Can-Can draws inspiration from several sources, including many melodies heard while watching cartoons and eating breakfast cereal in my youth. Walt Disney’s Fantasia depicted the “Dance of the Hours” from Amilcare Ponchielli’s opera La Gioconda with animated ostriches. Jacques Offenbach’s “Galop Infernal” from Orpheus in the Underworld has worked its way into the public consciousness through multiple uses in popular culture, and might be better known now simply as “the Can-can.” Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Stravinsky’s Firebird also make brief appearances. If you listen carefully and follow your nose, you might find a few other musical nods to birds of note.
Andrew Boysen and the University of New Hampshire Wind Symphony perform Tutued Toucan Can-Can:
Svanoe names several references. Here is the finale from the “Dance of the Hours” as seen in Fantasia:
The music most associated with the Can-Can comes from Offenbach’s Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld:
Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake is best distilled into its finale:
And Stravinsky’s Firebird finale:
See more about this piece at Svanoe’s website and J. W. Pepper. And keep a lookout for more bird references hidden in the score! Now a bonus: Toucans at play!
Double secret bonus: a history of the can-can!