Pumpkins, Pipes, and Pferg

This Saturday I went to "Pumpkins, Pipes, and Pferg", a Halloween organ performance starring the one and only John Ferguson. Let me tell you, it was the best pink card I've ever earned at St. Olaf. Fergs hilarious antics, the ghost of F. Melius Christiansen, a silent movie, and the David Anderson Quartet all made it the best Halloween event on campus this weekend. Handsdown.

While I was watching this performance, I couldn't help but think of Vaudeville. Honest! The second Christiansen made an appearance, I thought of the wacky antics of the Vaudevillian performers. Nonsensical situations full of silly accents and over-exaggerated motions: F. Melius' questonable Scandanavian accent and Ferg's kowtowing in response, for example. The bizarre musical antics of the 3 David Andersons who were able to make it, including a vacuum powered siren and some bizarre PVC contraption I didn't know the function of could have easily been replaced by a slide whistle and a duck that that quacked on cue. Finally, the silent film. I wish I had kept my program so I could remember the name, but in this film we saw the classic humor involving non-sensical situations like a rotating, non-squared house with reversible walls. Ferg's improvisation behind the film was marvelous, and his use of themes helped tie the noiseless movie together. My favorite moment might have been when the DVD player rejected the DVD because it was scratched. Ferg managed to avoid "getting the hook" however, by continuing his improvisations. Somehow, he managed to make the organ sound sassy, using slow tempos while we were waiting and faster ones when it looked like the DVD was going again.

I'm sort of sad this is my first year in Cantorei (the choir Ferg conducts), and his last. Though I'm really hoping this isn't the last year he does this performance. I'm guessing he'll still be around.