Last October, at one of our Monday concerts, Marco Blauuw, Benjamin Kobler and Dirk Rothbrust performed Benjamin Patterson’s work Paper Piece. This piece has a fascinating history:

While in Cologne in December 1960, Benjamin Patterson wrote a letter to his parents in Pittsburgh, sending them the score of his latest composition called “Paper Piece”. This work was a radical innovation for Patterson, who was actually a classically trained double bassist, and called for five performers to shake, break, crumple, rub, scrub, twist, blow and bang various sheets of paper.

Unable to spend Christmas at home, he hoped his family would perform the piece in his absence with wrapping paper from unwrapped gifts for joy and pleasure (“However save all the christmas papers, wripping, newspapes, etc. and then you can present it to yourselves, when I send the copy.”) .

This early version of Paper Piece later became a standard at Fluxus festivals in the 1960s and 1970s, embodying the spirit of generosity and the search for easily accessible materials and processes that inspired Patterson’s performance and visual art.