Woojoo for 8 Tubas and Drum Set (Printed and shipped)

Woojoo
for
Eight
Tubas
and
Drums
was
written
for
the
2008/09
tuba
class
at
the
USC
Thornton
School
of
Music.
My
 colleague
Norm
Pearson
and
I
had
an
exceptional
class
that
year—all
eight
had
F
tubas
and
plenty
of
chops
and
talent.

I
decided
to
write
a

challenging
piece
as
a
class
performance
and
recording
project.
The
piece
is
quadra‐phonic
with
four
stations
of
two
tubas
each.
In
 performance
(and
especially
as
recorded)
it
gives
a
feeling
of
broad
sonics
and
cascading
figures—and
is
best
heard
with
an
IPOD
or
 headphones
and
maybe
performed
in
the
round.

Woojoo
was
named
by
student,

Zeewoong
Munn
and
means
“space’
in
Korean.
The
 performers
(in
score
order)
were
Jon
Hansen,
Zeewoong
Munn,
David
McLemore,
Danny
Garcia,
Steven
Caron,
Mike
Musick,
Lyndsey
Hoh,
 Dave
Holben
and
Brian
Foremen,
drum
set.
It
was
great
experience
in
recording
and
preparing
difficult
music.

Throughout
the
piece
I
employ
my
love
of
odd‐meters
with
sudden
rhythmic
figures
giving
the
impression
of
odd‐meters.
Woojoo
 begins
with
a
a
low
intonation
of
the
title,
“Woo—Joo”
and
a
slow
lyrical
intro
followed
by
the
first
large
section
at
letter
A—a
kind
of
loosely
 swinging
funk
groove
with
lots
of
inter

play
between
the
pairs
of
tubas
and
drums.
All
of
the
tubas
have
wide
range
and
technical
 challenges.
The
second
large
section
(at
letter
H)
is
a
series
of
showcase
duets‐‐at
times
punctuated
by
the
other
tubas.
Underlying
this
is
a
 repetitious
6/8—3/4
drum
pattern.
With
the
tubas
playing
three
against
four
and
many
other
rhythmic
complexities,
the
impression
is
 one
of
shifting
meters.

Letter
I
is
a
set
of
overlapping
and
cascading
figures
followed
by
more
duets
and
a
return
to
the
funk
groove.
The
 third
section
uses
REAL
odd‐meters
that
constantly
shift‐‐
ala
Stravinsky‐‐building
up
to
eight
unison
high
Fs
with
four
tubas
moving
to
 high
Gs
for
a
tense,
screaming
high
major
2nd.

The
final
section
at
letter
P
is
a
soft
underling
hemiola
figure
of
all
Fs
and
Gs.
On
top
of
this
 we
have
several
improvised
solos
and
some
craziness
as
Woojoo
fades
out
into
space.

Woojoo
was
recorded
on
campus
April
10‐11
2009
by
USC
professor
Rick
Schmunk,
assisted
by
Mike
Musick.
The
project
was
an
 interdisciplinary
project
in
the
Thornton
School
of
Music.
The
live
premier
was
on
April
27th
at
USC
conducted
by
Norm
Pearson.
Much
 video
was
shot
at
the
recording
sessions,
performance
and
casually
for
an
upcoming
video
version
of
Woojoo.

It
is
8:24
minutes
in
length.
 JS

(With
good
players
Woojoo
could
be
played
with
four
pairs
of
one
euphonium
and
one
tuba
each
and
it
would
also
work
well
for
8
bass
trombones).