Thomas C. Duffy, Yale director of bands and professor in the School of Music, premiered the orchestral version of his piece Corpus Callosum at a Yale Symphony Orchestra concert this fall. One of the quirks about this piece―nobody but he can conduct it.
The score has constantly competing time signatures, whether its five against four, four against three, or something as outlandish as 15/8 time. The name itself, Corpus Callosum, refers to the bundle of neural fibers that communicate signals between the two hemispheres of the brain, because the conductor is required to behave as if this connection is severed. Mr. Duffy refers to the piece, a mix of militaristic rhythms and classic American tunes commissioned for the US Army Field Band in 1999, as his attempt to “out-Ives” Charles Ives, a great American composer known for modern and experimental music. Each hand conducts a different meter, and the outfit he wears for the piece is a representation of splitting the halves of the brain.
I was going to be conducting the Yale Precision Marching Band at the season opener game of Yale Men’s Hockey anyway, and game day fell right on Halloween weekend. How could I resist? In homage to Mr. Duffy, the faculty overseer of the band, I made my own version of the split-brain costume.
I made the suit by splicing together cheap old jackets I bought from Salvation Army. When I went out to buy the materials, I went shopping with my friend Kate–neither of us realized we were trying to make almost the identical costume. Her suite of girls had a group costume theme of “Disorders and Diseases”, and she had decided on split personality, drawing on similar inspiration from the Duffy suit. We spent Thursday night cutting and sewing (I’ll confess my sewing ability left something to be desired, so I trusted the hard parts to her–she had just honed her skills volunteering at a small village in Senegal over the summer) as we created our suits.
I wore it all day – to class, to work, to lunch with six of my Japanese professors – and got a lot of interesting responses. When somebody hadn’t seen the symphony concert and didn’t get the reference to Duffy’s outfit, I often found it easier to give a simplified explanation rather than repeat the costume’s elaborate backstory. “I’m… Twoface from Batman! Ying and Yang! A bourgeoisie panda!” Perhaps the whole thing came off a little creepier than I intended, because some dogs in the street definitely ran away from me with a yelp.
I conducted the hockey game in front of the costume-clad band (spandex ghosts and snuggies competed for most popular costume choice) while I wore the suit, body paint, and copious amounts of colored hairspray. The band’s pop and rock arrangements are a lot easier to conduct than the split brain Corpus Callosum piece, but I still had a blast cheering on the hockey team as they went on to win the first game of the season 7-4. It was a sweet start start for the team currently ranked #3 in the nation.
I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of the epic season following the hockey team (NCAA Frozen Four or bust!) although I think for the next game I’ll stick to normal clothes.