original music by Evren Centeno

created for HUM 124 with Leslee Johnson

Artist Statement

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the most striking theme to me is the evasion of mortality and the desire to have one’s name and importance go on forever. Gilgamesh’s awkward existence between god and human makes grappling with his limitations even more difficult. He feels like he can accomplish anything, and his desire to do so leads to the death of his greatest friend Enkidu. He was given a strength that makes him feel greater than the people around him, but he was also given their weaknesses; over the course of the epic, he has to learn to accept this. I find this to be deeply human and modern in a way most ancient texts can’t be. We’ve grown so much as a race that we possess powers that almost feel wrong to have, yet we all will arrive at the same fate one day: death. In my song, I wanted to capture Gilgamesh’s feelings of denial, grief and confusion. It was, however, very difficult to interpret this text into song. With lyrics and verses being so brief and short, I didn’t feel like I could stuff and specific plot points into the song, so the lyrics are a somewhat general reimagining of Gilgamesh’s struggle told through his perspective. I made the song pretty spontaneously and didn’t want to overthink anything, so I may have been able to make it more directly related to the text, but I felt that in the modern context of a song, it made more sense to release myself from the specifics of the epic: this is a reimagining afterall. I had a blast making the song. I really felt as though I was able to get lost in the process, adding harmonies, little bits of rhythmic texture and more! It was a fun and thoughtful project: I had to be mindful of the text I was working with but I was still able to let loose and let myself create!