“Loretto Alfresco is endearingly low-tech: its sounds are drawn entirely from recordings of a friend striking pots, pans and other items, which Mr. Fleisher sped up . . . and overlaid to create a rich, tactile texture.” (Allan Kozinn, NY Times, 2010)
Composer: Robert Fleisher
Year of Composition: 1970
Instrumentation: "found" percussion
Type of Electronics: Fixed
Number of Channels: 2
Duration: 68 seconds
Video Component: None
This musique concrète miniature was premiered during the inaugural NYCEMF (2009) and appears on SEAMUS Eleactroacoustic Miniatures 2012: “Re-Caged.” “Loretto Alfresco” and its still shorter (“piccolo”) version, created for 60×60, have since been programmed 3 dozen times in the U.S. and seven other countries. The composer recorded his childhood friend, Thomas Loretto, playing pots, pans, pipes, and other found objects–under a tree on a Wisconsin farm.