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To My Son Parker, Asleep in the Next Room

from Foundations by Thom Blum

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To My Son Parker, Asleep in the Next Room (1996)

The poem (and title to this setting), “To My Son Parker, Asleep in the Next Room” was written by Bob Kaufman sometime around 1960 as an ode to his son, named after Charlie Parker. Although less famous than his cohorts in the beat movement of the 1950s (Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Corso, McClure et al.), Kaufman was nevertheless an integral member of the San Francisco Beatnik scene... even during his long vow of silence.

“Parker” is an awesome apocalyptic poem, and while it's epic in scope it's miniature in length. More than an epic this poem is a prayer, offered by a father to his son, for an evolved humanity, a humanity that chooses not to enslave others.The goal of the setting is to support the poem with an interpretative sonification.

I would like to thank Vic Bedoian of Pacifica Radio [at that time] for sending me the source cassette tape recordings of readings of Bob Kaufman’s poetry and granting me permission to use them for this piece. Roscoe Lee Brown provided the powerful reading of the poem in this piece.

Source sounds consist of natural field recordings and the voice recording of Roscoe Lee Brown reading the poem. All sounds were edited and processed on an Apple Macintosh Iici computer using a variety of software, including Turbosynth and Sound Designer II (Digidesign), Hyperprism (Arboretum), Alchemy (Passport), assorted DSP algorithms (Muscle Fish),Cloud Generator (Roads & Alexander), and Deck II (OSC).

©+℗ 1996 Thom Blum (ASCAP)

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from Foundations, released January 2, 2021
poem: Bob Kaufman
voice: Roscoe Lee Brown

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Thom Blum San Francisco, California

Thom Blum has been composing electroacoustic music since 1974.

Recent performances and installations include "[You Are [Here] You [Are] You Here]", a sound installation established in 2022 in the Prelinger Library in San Francisco, and "Telescopic 1 (zoom out)" at the San Francisco Tape Music Festival 2024. ... more

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