REVISITING A RIVER (10/19/2010)

Greene St. in the SoHo district of Manhattan was once a hotbed of experimentation in the New York art world. On this street is the legendary Fluxhouse.

 

 

A remnant of this vital period in the history of music in the U.S. is Roulette, a small, unassuming  space located right next to Fluxhouse at 20 Greene St., but not for long. Plans are for this venue to move to a much larger space in Brooklyn. Here is a part of its "mission statement":

ROULETTE's original and ongoing purpose has been to provide opportunities for innovative composers, musicians, sound artists and interdisciplinary collaborators to present their work in accessible, appropriate and professional productions. The organization is committed to supporting work by young and emerging artists as well as by established innovators.

http://roulette.org/


In contrast to its West Village sister, (Le) Poisson Rouge,  Roulette is far less like a night club and has much less of a commercial air about it.  It is also much less expensive! 

When I discovered that the composer Eve Beglarian's works were going to be performed at Roulette I was quite thrilled.  Eve took an adventurous trip mainly by kayak and bike down and up the Mississippi River.  The end result would be to compose a series of works based on her experiences. This concert at Roulette would be the first exposure to some of these works. She also maintained a blog of her journey. As fate would have it, I was teaching a course on musical life along the Mississippi River and could include much of her blog material as an enhancement to my course.  

Eve Beglarian Website

The ensemble for the performance consisted of a singer/speaker (Eve Beglarian),violin, mandolin guitar, trombone quartet, and electronic and recorded sounds. All of the musicians were quite amazing but the trombone quartet was especially exceptional.  Beglarian draws from many traditions but most of the works draw on folk traditions. 
  

Each work had its own distinct temperament.  Beglarian definitely shapes the music to what she wants to say and not the other way around. She is obviously a lover of poetry as was evidenced in her powerful setting of Robert Frost's poem, The Flood.

The Flood is a setting of a poem Robert Frost wrote in 1928, in response to the 1927 flood of the Mississippi River that destroyed a million homes, drove hundreds of thousands of people - mostly poor and African-American - north, and transformed America.

The Flood (1928)

Blood has been harder to dam back than water.
Just when we think we have it impounded safe
Behind new barrier walls (and let it chafe!),
It breaks away in some new kind of slaughter.
We choose to say it is let loose by the devil;
But power of blood itself releases blood.
It goes by might of being such a flood
Held high at so unnatural a level.
It will have outlet, brave and not so brave.
Weapons of war and implements of peace
Are but the points at which it finds release.
And now it is once more the tidal wave
That when it has swept by leaves summits stained.
Oh, blood will out. It cannot be contained.

• Robert Frost

Another piece on the program, "I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long" was poignantly performed by violinist Mary Rowell.  This achingly beautiful work combines elements of Beglarian's Armenian heritage with at least a textual reference to Mississippi Delta blues legend Charlie Patton.

Another memorable work on the program was "I a really a very simple person," which was conceived of chorally using solfege syllables as the text.

A work not directly connected with Beglarian's river journey, Night Psalm for piano, was also beautifully performed.

It will be fun to see what other works emerge from this project.  


(This performance took place on Tuesday, October 19, 2010.)