score – Eve Beglarian

Machaut a Go-go

Machaut a Go-go adapts both the music and the lyrics of Machaut’s virelais â€œMoult sui de bonne heure neeâ€ to the go-go style. Go-go is a jazzy offshoot of rap that fourished in Washington, D.C. a while ago. Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers were my main inspiration in adapting the style. Machaut a Go-go was written in 1991 for Kitty Brazelton and her nine-piece band, Dadadah. Kitty made the translation and adaptation of the Machaut lyrics, as well as helping immeasurably to shape the piece. Many thanks to her and the other members of Dadadah for their work and musicianship.

Machaut a Go-go can be performed with an introduction: a performance of the original virelais (for voice and harp or guitar) that is rudely interrupted by the drummer, who leads in the other musicians. Here is a scan of the original score to use if you want to do this introduction.

Machaut a Go-go is part of my ongoing project, A Book of Days. You can listen to a Dadadah’s recording by visiting May 7th.

You can download a score of the piece here. You can purchase performance materials by clicking the link below.

And thanks for supporting this low-key way of publishing!

september 13

a fresh mix of Play Like a Girl for A Book of Days:Â september 13.

Pump Music

Pump MusicÂ is inspired by a series of hand pumps I encountered in campsites while traveling down the Mississippi River in 2009. I recorded this pump at a campsite called Wanagan’s Landing, which was the place we stayed after the very first day of paddling, on 1 August 2009. It’s maybe ten miles down from the headwaters of the Mississippi River, in northern Minnesota.

I was struck not only by the raucous noise of the pump, but also by the unearthly melody of the afterglow as the water recedes back into the earth when you stop pumping. The melody is not a simple overtone series as you might expect, but some curious phenomenon emerging from the length and diameter of the pipe that I don’t have enough physics to understand.

Pump MusicÂ was commissioned for the Guidonian Hand and Mary RowellÂ by Meet the Composer/Commissioning Music USA, and is dedicated to them with vast affection.

Pump Music is part of my ongoing project, A Book of Days. To hear the premiere performance (at Roulette on 1 June 2012), please visit August 1st.

HereÂ is a score of the complete piece in pdf format.

After you click the donation button below, you’ll get all the necessary materials to perform the piece.

You can also readÂ this blog postÂ about 1 August 2009 ofÂ The River Project.

new trombone piece posted

here’s a score of a piece for solo trombone, written for Will Lang, in honor of John Cage’s 100th birthday. you use the I Ching to come up with the notes for the piece, and you can add a super-long delay if you want to get allÂ meditational about it. I hope you enjoy it:Â and let me know if you’d like to try it on a different instrument than trombone. I think it needs to stay in the breath-producing family: brass, winds, or voice could all work.

Enough Holes

Enough Holes was written for the French pianist Nicolas Horvath to perform on a concert of hommages to Philip Glass. The piece is a response to one that Glass wrote with Foday Musa Suso for a 1989 production of Jean Genet’s play The Screens. My piece is inspired by an error-filled computer transcription of the original recording, further edited and transformed manually. I hope it has enough holes.

The piece is part of my ongoing project, A Book of Days. To listen to a recording, please visitÂ May 2nd.