SMEOP: A Journey Accompanied by Music

Emeritus Professor of Music Aaron Beck will present a lecture/performance of his recent research on medieval storytelling followed by his melodrama called SMEOP, a collection of his poetry with original music by Jude Abare ’24 and his amazing jazz trio. The event will begin with an exploration of the so-called 1/2 story of Boccaccio’s Decameron, in which a father “protects” his child from the evils of the world, denying the child their wish to interact fully with their surroundings and their complex inner world. A performance of SMEOP will follow, inspired by this story and Beck’s lifetime study of medieval music and literature, specifically the Ordo virtutum of Hildegard of Bingen and elements of Dante’s Inferno. The melodrama, a collection of nine original prose poems, investigates our collective journeys walking through life with a companion. In SMOEP the companion is music, which is interpolated before and after the poems as a guide.