Music for the Unloved: Compositions for Cheap and Discarded Instruments

by Theo Lowrey

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1.	(Speech 1) 03:06		buy track
2.	While We Wait 03:42	info	buy track
3.	(Speech 2) 01:23		buy track
4.	In A Dark Time 04:43	lyrics	buy track
In a dark time, the eye begins to see, I meet my shadow in the deepening shade; I hear my echo in the echoing wood— A lord of nature weeping to a tree. I live between the heron and the wren, Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den. What’s madness but nobility of soul At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire! I know the purity of pure despair, My shadow pinned against a sweating wall. That place among the rocks—is it a cave, Or winding path? The edge is what I have. A steady storm of correspondences! A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon, And in broad day the midnight come again! A man goes far to find out what he is— Death of the self in a long, tearless night, All natural shapes blazing unnatural light. Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire. My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly, Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I? A fallen man, I climb out of my fear. The mind enters itself, and God the mind, And one is One, free in the tearing wind. Theodore Roethke
5.	(Speech 3) 02:18		buy track
6.	I 05:29	info	buy track
7.	(Speech 4) 01:35		buy track
8.	Play 03:52	info	buy track
9.	(Speech 5) 02:36		buy track
10.	In Spite of it All 04:49	info	buy track

about

Program Notes:

There is so much to say about this concert. So much more than my first Senior Concert. This project has been a dream of mine since I became a composition student two years ago. At the time, I looked around my room and saw so many instruments that I have accumulated over the years, with the encouragement (and sometimes appropriate skepticism) of my family and friends.
Each one of these instruments has a story. I’ll tell some of them during this concert, but, honestly, I don’t even know their full history. They’ve had so much life before be. Many were used, misused, discarded, passed on, replaced by “better” versions. Some are older than me, and some I have fixed up or even built (with help of course). It is with great pleasure that I introduce them to you and to the world of the semi-professional “classical” music hall.
Which is to say that very few of these instruments ever have been or ever would again be graced by such beautiful acoustical spaces. They are the rejects, only played at middle school band concerts or discarded on the side of the street. This is music for the unloved, for those who do not get the attention they deserve.
It is also cheap music. You may notice that the only instruments that exceed $300 are the cello and the double bass, of which I do not have inexpensive versions, so I have asked the musicians to provide their own. This is to point out the cost of classical music and the way that we treat money. “Good” instruments are so often either a privilege of those who can afford them or a huge cost for those who cannot.
But it also important to think about the way that we use money. Is money something to accumulate and save, or is it something to spend on things that bring us joy? For me, it is the latter. These are silly things, cheap things, but they bring me joy. And I hope they do the same for you.
Thank you so much for coming and thanks to everyone who has helped me throughout this process. Family, friends, musicians, I could not have done it without all of you. I love you so much.

Theo Lowrey ‘16

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released May 23, 2016

Recorded by Andrew Feyer

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Theo Lowrey Denville, New Jersey

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