← more from
Neuma Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Black Water: Part One

from pause and feel and hark by Jeremy Beck

/

about

While I have composed works in a variety of media, I have a particular interest in the genre of theater, both in opera and in other hybrid forms. In my more recent
compositions for the stage, I have been exploring new structural definitions of time without abandoning a fundamental narrative at the core of each piece. Much of
traditional Western music is conceptually based on a clear linear development of material. In easing away from this concept, I have been employing musical analogs
to certain techniques frequently found in film, video and literature: flashbacks, crosscutting, sharp juxtapositions of diverse material, as well as the layering of
simultaneous yet unrelated events in time (i.e., parallel construction).

Upon reading Joyce Carol Oates's novel Black Water (New York: Dutton, 1992), numerous musical possibilities along these lines suggested themselves to me. Once her
permission was secured in May of 1993, I completed this work in 1994 (writing and shaping the libretto myself from her text). This extended composition for soprano
and piano is not a song-cycle per se, but is closer in its form to that of a monodrama, with the soprano and the pianist assuming multiple roles and states of mind
(following the variety of levels created by Oates). Oates's story is a slightly veiled fictional account of the events at Chappaquidick in 1969. It is presented
completely from the point of view of the drowning woman: in reality, in flashback, in dreams and in hallucinations. And while this is a theatrical piece, it is
meant to be a work which is not quite in the character of an opera. In other words, there isn't any staging, scenery or props involved in its performance. The
theater of the piece is to be derived completely from the story itself and the manner in which it is communicated by the two performers. The soprano's role may be
related to that of an ancient Greek poet, who sang epic poems to an audience, using the music as a means to further communicate the theatrical nature of the story.

Written and composed in Cedar Falls during the fall of 1994, the creation of Black Water was supported, in part, by a Summer Fellowship from the University of
Northern Iowa Graduate College. This work was premiered by Jean McDonald (soprano) and Robin Guy (piano) on 29 March 1995 at the University of Northern Iowa. Black
Water was written for, and is dedicated to my dear friend, soprano Jean McDonald.

credits

from pause and feel and hark, released September 18, 2023
Jean McDonald, soprano
Robin Guy, piano

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Jeremy Beck image

Jeremy Beck Louisville, Kentucky

Jeremy Beck “knows the importance of embracing the past while also going his own way. … [In] Beck’s forceful and expressive sound world … the writing is concise in structure and generous in tonal language, savouring both the dramatic and the poetic.” (Gramophone Magazine). ... more

contact / help

Contact Jeremy Beck

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Jeremy Beck, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring interviews with LA music scene pillar Kamasi Washington, and new London-based duo Mrcy.

listen now