We would like to welcome you to the third in a series of intimate house concerts hosted by Bill Thompson, Brent Fariss, and Clark Crawford. In this particular series (the loft series) we will be following a standard format of one installation followed by two solo performances. The solo performances will be performed from the loft above and out of sight of the audience seated below. We have always struggled with the all too common phenomenon of audience members looking at what is being performed at the expense of listening to what is being performed. Through this series we are hoping to refocus our energies back into the act of listening as a primary vehicle of experiencing our surroundings.

Homage to New York - Bill Thompson

Homage to New York was written in honor of the composers of the New York
School. It includes samples from the works of John Cage, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman, and David Tudor. The samples from each composer are roughly equal in combined length, and were all altered to a greater or lesser degree, while still retaining their identity. They were chosen in consideration of composer representation, recognizability, level of homogeneity/contrast, and compositional pliability. The alterations include various effects such as pitch-shifting, panning, ring modulation, and other editing techniques. Effects were chosen in light of the possibilities of each track playing against itself and other tracks. This work, of course, would not have been possible without the music written by the New York School, or their influence on me and modern music in general. Check out their music the next time you're at the cd store.

Privilege Piece # 4 - Josh Ronsen
When Bill mentioned that I would have a chance to perform at one of the Loft Shows, I confess my initial reaction was to play it safe, do a variation of previously performed or composed piece, make a nice impression on all the people. Then I thought of the space itself and how to design a piece that would use its unique characteristics. The layout of the loft perversely emphasizes the privileged position of the performer (granted at the same time occulting it). How to utilize this "heightened" privilege? Subvert it? Embrace it? As a people who enjoy (if not take for granted) our many privileges, how do we feel when we loose privilege? Do artists have special privileges? Gayle Young in a recent article in Musicworks argues that musicians need to be fed and housed; she does not argue that people in general have these needs.

Previous privilege pieces occurred at Movements Gallery, the Hideout, and the "House Taken Over" event on East 43rd St.

Folk Song (for 27 oboes and acoustic guitar) - Brent Fariss

Folk Song originally started as my attempt to create a beautiful folk / pop song. It quickly developed into something more complicated, taking over 4 years to complete. Why the number 27? The primary reason was due to the large amount of instrument groupings I could utilize, mainly because of the number 3 (3 x 3 x 3). Obviously, finding 27 oboes willing to play this was going to be next to impossible, so I opted to seek out a single oboe player (Jacob Green) to record all of the events. The oboe tracks were recorded one at a time and then carefully mixed (with placement in the stereo field based on each parts relationship to the overtone series). Special thanks to Jacob Green (dawn of the oboe) and Clark Crawford.

Presented by:

ThomFariCraw:
modern music initiative

Dedicated to the creation and presentation of the highest caliber of modern experimental music.

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