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Bob Farnsworth ’74 \/ Courtesy photo<\/p><\/div>\n
The camera follows the river into the heart of Greenville, South Carolina, swooping past iconic locations \u2013 including Furman\u2019s Bell Tower \u2013 and busy citizens. The images and music, played by the Greenville Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edvard Tchivzhel, merge in \u201cWhere Water Flows,\u201d a seven-minute film and orchestral work that reflects the diversity and history of the city that Nashville, Tennessee-based composer Bob Farnsworth \u201974 still calls home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never really left Greenville,\u201d says Farnsworth, who entered Furman after graduating from Greenville High School.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a serious homeboy. It\u2019s the best place to live in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere Water Flows\u201d premiered with live symphonic accompaniment at the Peace Center in October 2022 to open the GSO\u2019s 75th season. The score and the film \u2013 directed by Jeffrey Berry and produced by Farnsworth\u2019s Hummingbird Productions \u2013 were commissioned to honor the anniversary.<\/p>\n
The piece is what Farnsworth calls \u201cfusic\u201d \u2013 the fusion of film and music. Instead of creating a score to match a finished film or editing a film to match a finished score, \u201cfusicians\u201d develop the audio and visuals in tandem, Farnsworth explains, leveraging the power of both to connect emotionally with an audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cFusic\u201d has helped Farnsworth build one of the longest-standing film and advertising music production companies in the United States. A guitarist and singer who performed with Furman\u2019s Concert Choir, Farnsworth moved to Nashville after graduating with an English degree and signing a major label record contract. He was soon composing commercial jingles, founding Hummingbird Productions in 1976. The company has created Clio Award-winning material for Coca-Cola, Wrigley and Oscar Mayer, produced music for IMAX films and collaborated with the likes of Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Arlo Guthrie and Stevie Ray Vaughan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere Water Flows\u201d juxtaposes footage of Greenville\u2019s dynamic present with archival images that trace the town\u2019s development into the \u201cTextile Center of the South\u201d and the grim times that followed when the mills shut down. The cleanup of the Reedy River, poisoned for years by pollution from the mills, was a major inspiration for Farnsworth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWater is life-giving, and Greenville grew up around water,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it builds and builds into something bigger, and then that water is spoiled. And then that water almost exists to say, \u2018I\u2019ll forgive you. Let\u2019s just do it better.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In the final sequence, the sparkling Reedy River rushes under the Liberty Bridge in a revitalized downtown park. Farnsworth\u2019s score crescendos in a passage that he admits borrows heavily from \u201cRhapsody in Blue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s meant to give you the chills and think, \u2018We really did it right,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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