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Elvis Everywhere for String Quartet and Pre-Recorded Sound (Full Score and Parts) [notated music]

Title

Elvis Everywhere for String Quartet and Pre-Recorded Sound (Full Score and Parts) [notated music]

Place of Publication/Creation

Ann Arbor, MI

Published/Created

1993

Type of Material

notated music

Genre

notated music

Publisher

Michael Daugherty Musi

Distributor

Hal Leonard Corporatio

Language

English

Media

unmediated

Physical Description

1 score (50 pages) + 5 parts

Carrier

volume

Contents Note

Music.

Summary

Elvis Everywhere (1993) for string quartet and pre-recorded sound was commissioned and recorded for Nonesuch by Kronos Quartet. The first performance took place by Kronos Quartet at the University of California San Diego on October 12, 1993 in San Diego, California. Elvis Everywhere explores the world of Elvis Presley impersonators who perpetuate the music and style of the “King of Rock and Roll” in tribute acts by looking, dressing, singing and talking just like Elvis did. Elvis impersonators typically choose one of three periods in Elvis’ life to portray: the 1950s “Blue Suede Shoes,” Memphis, Sun Records period; the 1960s Hollywood and black leather 1968 “Comeback Special” period; the 1970s Las Vegas white jump suit with karate belt period. -- To find Elvis impersonators for my project, I made a pilgrimage to the International Elvis Impersonators Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada in the summer of 1992. As I entered the Vegas Hilton International Hotel—where Elvis actually performed the final six years of his life— encountered dozens “Elvii” in full costume roaming the lobby. Attending Elvis tribute concerts for several days, I was impressed by Patty “Elvis” Manning, a female Elvis impersonator located in Chicago. After explaining my Elvis project, Patty agreed to participate and recruited John Taylor and Larry Caballero, two legendary Elvis impersonators from Chicago. -- In the spring of 1992, we convened in a recording studio in Chicago, where I produced a recording of the three Elvis impersonators improvising and singing from a script I had created. My script contained lists of hotels, concert venues, films and people in Elvis’ life, Elvis quotes (confirmed and unconfirmed) and Elvis sayings such as: Shakespeare’s “The World’s a Stage” (recited by Elvis at every performance); “Thank you very much” (often drawled by Elvis in concert after every song); “Elvis has left the building” (announced at the end of every Elvis Vegas concert). -- Also referenced in the script was Elvis’ Faustian relationship with Hollywood and Colonel Parker (his lifelong “manager” who took 50 percent of everything that Elvis ever made), Elvis’ love of martial arts (he was a black belt) and Elvis in the afterlife (many believe he is still alive and living incognito in Kalamazoo, Michigan). -- To create a “click track” so that the string quartet (yet to be written) could synchronize in concert with the Elvis impersonators soundtrack (yet to be edited), I composed baritone saxophone riffs, which were also recorded during the session. I then “left the building” and returned to my studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I created the Elvis impersonators’ soundtrack by digitally cutting and splicing the recorded material on my computer. Finally, I composed the string quartet part. -- Decades after the untimely death of Elvis at the age of 42, Elvis Everywhere makes an argument that Elvis continues to be “everywhere” and “everything” to millions of fans who experience vicariously the “King of Rock and Roll” through the performances of Elvis’s music by dedicated and passionate Elvis impersonators. -- –Michael Daugherty.

Notes

String quartet and pre-recorded sound.

ISMN with hyphens: 979-0-58033-002-4

Description based on ISMN data provided by the publisher.

Music notation

Staff notation.

International Standard Music Number (ISMN)

9790580330024

Last Updated: 03-26-2022