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Music From the Collections: The Rubáiyát Songbook

Presented by Harry Ransom Center at Harry Ransom Center

April 9, 2009

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As part of the Harry Ransom Center’s Music from the Collections series, students and faculty from the Southwestern University Department of Music present The Rubáiyát Songbook, a concert of old and new settings inspired by the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam.
Songs from the Ransom Center’s collection are featured, including works by James Rogers, Benjamin Richmond, Richard Fidler, Arthur Whiting, and Arthur Foote. These settings and song parodies, mostly dating from around the turn of the twentieth century, will be performed side-by-side with brand new musical settings of the Rubáiyát by Southwestern faculty and student composers, including Assistant Professor of Music Jason Hoogerhyde, Ashley Foster, Jeff Elliott, Stephanie Stewart, Natalie Moore, and Stephanie Taylor. Performers include Associate Professor of Music Bruce Cain singing baritone; Matthew Dorris and Matthew Harper singing tenor; Katie de la Vega, Leslie Collie, Brooke Lyssy, and Emily Price singing soprano; Natalie Moore singing mezzo-soprano; Jeff Elliott on violin; Natalie Phillips-Perkoff and Stephanie Stewart on cello; Zoe Martin on harp; Assistant Professor of Music Anna Carney on clarinet; and Assistant Professor of Music David Utterback on piano.

Seating is free, but limited. One night only. The program will also be

here.

 

This program is in conjunction with The Persian Sensation: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in the West, on display through August 2. The year 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of Edward FitzGerald’s landmark translation of the poetry of the medieval Persian astronomer Omar Khayyám. These gemlike verses about mortality, fate, and doubt became an unprecedented popular phenomenon in England and America but have since fallen into obscurity. Featuring 200 items from the Ransom Center’s extensive collections, the exhibition narrates The Rubáiyát’s history through such items as Persian manuscripts, miniature editions, and illustrated parodies.

Media sponsor: Classical 89.5 KMFA