Pan's Lament, by Ary van Leeuwen
Program notes by Bradley Wilbur
In tackling Ary van Leeuwen’s Pan’s Lament (1935), Assimakopoulos identified phrasing as her crucial task. “Holding the piece together and capturing a sense of line seemed to take extra work,” she says, “but I think there is a rationale for what I took at first to be kind of a ‘patch-work,’ indecisive melody.” Pan here is perhaps “lamenting” separation from a recent romantic conquest. He sounds as if he is alternately bemoaning the parting and savoring memories of the time spent as a couple, resulting in some manic mood swings in the piece. “A few spots here conjure up a two-note horn summons to me, as if Pan is calling for her over the valley.” Listen for a scale passage identical to the one in “The Extatic Shepherd.”
This piece is performed here by Nina Assimakopoulos and was released on her 2003 CD Arcadian Murmurs, Pan in Pieces, Vol. I (Euterpe Recordings 202) as part of the Pan Project, an endeavor that commissions and records works for flute based on the Greek god Pan.
Recording Date: 2003
Recording Location: Houghton College
Ensemble Type: Solo Flute
Duration: 0:4:08
Performers: Nina Assimakopoulos
About the Music
Composer: Ary van Leeuwen
Instrumentation: Solo Flute
Date Composed: 1935
Pan's Lament
Last modified on Thursday, 27/09/2018
Nina Assimakopoulos
Nina Assimakopoulos is credited with over 85 international and national world-premiere performances and commissions. She is a as multimedia collaborative artist integrating baroque through contemporary flute music with visual and digital and visual arts, dance, and theater.
Assimakopoulos is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the Aaron Copland Fund Grant for New Music Recording, two Fulbright Grants, and the National Society of Arts and Letters Career Award.
Her contemporary music recordings include Arcadian Murmurs, Pan in Pieces, Vol. I and Points of Entry, Works for Solo Flute by American Women Composers, Volumes I and II released on Capstone Records and Euterpe Recordings.
She is flute professor at West Virginia University.