Thursday, March 27, 2008

Music of the Grand Canyon

Ferde Grofe was born in New York City on this day in 1892. He was well known for arranging other composers works, particularly for a full-orchestra arrangement of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

The work he is most famous for today is his Grand Canyon Suite, a five-movement work for orchestra, each movement representing an aspect of the Grand Canyon. The most famous movement is called "On the Trail" - this piece is hilarious! You've probably heard parts of it on Looney Tunes cartoons or something like that. It depicts a bumpy ride on a donkey on the trail of the Grand Canyon - listen for the hee-haws, cloppity-clops, etc.

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