Born to Be Wild

for multiple percussion and voice

Composer: Steppenwolf arr. David Lang
Year: 1968
Duration: 4 minutes

This timeless rock 'n' roll classic was set to percussion by David Lang and recorded by Steve Schick and Evelyn Glennie among others. Lang, as many percussionists know from his Anvil Chorus, is a huge fan of found objects, including metals of various types. While there is no score to Born to Be Wild, it is a useful musical experience to listen to recordings and attempt to arrange and arrangement. One strong point of Lang's arrangment is his setting of high (glockenspiel), middle (metals), and low percussive sounds (bass marimba), essentially creating a foreground, middleground, and background normally reserved for visual art. Plus, as a classical musician who likes to rock out, I just get a kick out of saying I was born to be wild.