I’ve been playing this piece for several years and love it very much. It’s not always easy to program because of the electronics and also because of the scordatura (different tuning of the violin), but I think more violinists should know it.
From Eve’s website (https://evbvd.com):
Well-Spent (2011) was written in response to a line in one of Leonardo’s notebooks that I came across soon after traveling down the Mississippi River by kayak and bicycle in 2009.
L’acqua che tochi de fiumi, è l’ultima di quella che andò, e la prima di quelle che viene; così il tempo presente. La vita bene spesa lunga è. Leonardo: Notebook 1174
The water you touch in a river
is the last that has passed
and the first that is coming;
so with the present moment.
The well-spent life is long. (evb translation)
The pre-recorded track of Well-Spent is made from Mary Rowell’s recording of the Muddy Waters 1942 tune You Got to Take Sick and Die Some of These Days. Well-Spent was commissioned by Ron Blessinger and the Third Angle Ensemble in memory of Donna Drummond. Many thanks to the Montalvo Arts Center, where I made the piece.