The Soundtrack Project

Carolyn Hardy never stops.

She didn’t stop when her employer said they were closing their Memphis factory. Instead, she bought it.

She didn’t stop when a tornado ripped into the facility shortly after it had come under her ownership. Instead, her team patched it up and went back to work.

A Memphis native, Hardy feels it’s important to keep businesses like hers in the city. Her cavernous facility can manufacture any beverage a company needs — and she’s ready to see more lines of product moving along the conveyor belts.

For The Soundtrack Project, composer Robert Patterson toured Hardy Bottling Company with Carolyn. He took his inspiration to use the symphony’s marimba in part from the fast-paced activity at the heart of the factory. But in learning about Hardy’s triumph over adversity, he says, the scope of the piece grew larger.

“The piece was tailored very much to Carolyn Hardy’s personal story,” he says. “It opens roughly, the violin and marimba gusting stormy blasts of wind. Then in the middle they take up a bubbly little tune that may sound a bit like bottles going through an assembly line. I chose the marimba for its ability slightly to mimic bottles.

“The final section,” he says, “is a tribute to Hardy’s indomitable ability to surmount even the most crushing adversity.”

The Artist

Robert Patterson grew up in Memphis. He first studied horn with Richard Dolph in Memphis and later with Robert Fries at Oberlin College. During the 1980s he lived in Memphis but played in the MSO only as a sub. He became a regular member in 1994. In addition to playing the horn, Patterson is also a composer. He has written works in a wide variety of genres, including works for orchestra the the Memphis Symphony has performed.

Credits

Lance Murphey, photographer, co-producer
John Hubbell, writer/producer
Lee Gordon, editor

"Hardy Bottling Company"
An original composition by Robert Patterson
Memphis Symphony Orhestra
©2010 Robert Patterson. All rights reserved.

Long Long Kang, violin
David Carlisle, marimba

Music recorded by Kevin Houston
Archer Studios, Memphis, Tenn.

Lee Gordon, additional sound design

Additional video by WREG-TV Memphis
Additional images by Memphis Commercial Appeal, the Tri-State Defender and Derrel R. Blain

Special thanks to
Bernadette Fuller
Marie Heitman
The Hardy family
Michael McMullan
Rosemary Nelms
Bruce Moore
Corie Ventura

Series producers
Amy Clithero Gill
John Hubbell
Lance Murphey
Angela Michaels

Executive producers
John W. Moore
Amy Daniels
Ryan Fleur