Music for Squeaky Toy

Posted by Sarah Canice Funke Aug 11, 2008

Classical music has always had its jokesters. French composer Erik Satie wrote compositions with quirky titles such as "Genuine Flabby Preludes (for a dog)." Franz Haydn protested his sponsor's refusal to let the court musicians go home to their families with The Farewell Symphony (during the course of this symphony, musicians leave the stage one by one until only a single musician remains).

Now young composer Carl Schimmel is joining the ranks of composers who liked to liven things up with an odd instrument or two. Schimmel is one of the composers who works at the Yaddo colony for artists and writers in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He is known for incorporating unusual instruments into his works, such as squeaky toys and whoopie cushions.

Schimmel has written a work entitled Elemental Homunculi, a Latin phrase which means "little man." The third movement of this composition is scored for tenor saxophone, piano and squeaky toy. While the sax and the piano provide most of the musical material, the squeaky toy chimes in at rather odd moments, sure to provoke a smile on the face of even the most dour listener.

For more information, or to listen to "As Fast As Possible," please visit the NPR Music article.