The Turnip

for multiple percussion and Voice

Composer: Cory Hills
Year: 2009
Duration: 5 minutes

The Turnip is another piece part of The Percussive Art of Storytelling. It is a setting of a story by Leon Tolstoy that features an additive process. Basically, an old man plants a turnip, tries to pull it up, and fails. So he calls the old woman who pulls him while he pulls the turnip. They fail, and then call the grandson, the dog, and the cat but still cannot pull the turnip up. Eventually the smallest mouse helps them pull it up leading to a moral that says "Even the strongest can use the help of the smallest."

Compositionally, I worked backwards with a complete groove on cowbells, woodblocks, opera gong, nipple gong, and tambourine. Then I slowly pared off material until arriving at the first cell, that of the old man. The score for The Turnip is available upon request.