Eve Beglarian has been called “a humane, idealistic rebel and a musical sensualist,” “One of new music’s truly free spirits,” and a “remarkable experimentalist.” She is a composer, performer, and audio producer whose music has been described as “an eclectic and wide-open series of enticements.”
Her chamber, choral, and orchestral music has been commissioned and performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the American Composers Orchestra, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the California EAR Unit, St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, Relâche, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, and individual performers including Maya Beiser, Lauren Flanigan, Sarah Cahill, and Marya Martin.
Highlights of her experience in music theater include music for Mabou Mines’ Obie-winning Dollhouse, Animal Magnetism, Ecco Porco, and Choephorai, all directed by Lee Breuer; Forgiveness, a collaboration with Chen Shi-Zheng and Noh master Akira Matsui; and the China National Beijing Opera Theater’s production of The Bacchae, also directed by Chen Shi-Zheng. She has collaborated with a number of choreographers, including Victoria Marks, Ann Carlson, Susan Marshall, David Neumann, and Robert La Fosse, and with visual and video artists including Shirin Neshat, Cory Arcangel, Kevork Mourad, Vittoria Chierici, Barbara Hammer, Judson Wright, and Anne Bray.
Performance projects include Songs from a Book of Days, The Story of B, Open Secrets, Hildegurls’ Ordo Virtutum, twisted tutu, and typOpera.
Recordings of Eve’s music are available on Koch, New World, Cantaloupe, CRI Emergency Music, OO Discs, Open Space, Accurate Distortion, Atavistic, Kill Rock Stars, and Innova.
For more information about Eve’s work, please visit www.evbvd.com.
A note from the composer
I will not be sad in this world is based on the song “Ashkharumes Akh Chim Kashil” by the legendary 18th-century Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova. The song is often played on the duduk, and your flute playing should respond to the ornamentation, intonation, and vibrato of traditional duduk playing.
In playing this piece, you will want to be flexible with time: the 32nd notes are mostly notated grace notes coloring the following note, and can be compressed towards that next note for effect. Similarly, the meter should be downplayed: use the pre-recorded part to give you guideposts, and then shape your phrases quite freely around those guideposts.
I strongly suggest that you listen to my demo recording of the piece, as it will give an indication of what I am looking for. I have not transcribed every note that I sang on the demo, and similarly, once you feel comfortable with the playing style, you can ornament the melody with some flexibility yourself. The notated turns are meant to indicate places where it is most natural to do some ornamentation.
The piece can be played on either alto flute or bass flute. I am hoping for a certain vulnerability in your playing, so choose the flute that will help you most with that. If you are playing in a dry hall, you might consider slight amplification, not for volume, but to allow you to add reverb to your sound. It will then be easier to blend well with the tape part.
Optionally, one (or even two) additional flutists may double the lines called “voice” that are part of the tape part. The additional player(s) should play more softly than the soloist, and get even softer as the piece progresses and the electronics take over.
Thanks to Marya Martin who commissioned the piece. Many thanks to my friend and colleague Margaret Lancaster, who tried out the piece for me and advised me about notation. Thanks also to the Civitella Ranieri Foundation who were my generous hosts while I was writing I will not be sad in this world.
Audio accompaniment and demo available as free download here.
photo credit: Margaret Satchell |
