The Northwood Wind Ensemble went deep into the repertoire at last week’s Irvine Band Festival for some avant-garde pieces, including one called “Rollo Takes a Walk.”
“It’s the quirkiest, gayest piece I’ve ever played,” my son said.
“Rollo” didn’t have any good percussion parts, just oddball instrumentation with rimshots, slide whistles, etc.
“And in measure 126,” he said, “everybody stops playing and says, ‘Rollo…takes…a walk.'”
“Hmmmm.”
“Except it’s not written into my part so I don’t say it . . . and I play one note on the chimes.”
“What note is it?”
“An F.”
“I’m thinking the Rollo composer could follow up with an entire Rollo suite,” I said. “‘Rollo Takes a Shower,’ ‘Rollo Takes a Test,’ ‘Rollo Takes a Vacation,’ you see where I’m going with this?”
“Stop being stupid,” he said.
“Why is it stupid? Because you didn’t think of it?”
Thank you Richard, for showing me this.