World Premiere by TBA, Flute New Music Festival, Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, OK, October 2026.
Program Notes
O Cupbearer | أيها الساقي takes its title from the celebrated Andalusian muwash-shah , Ayyuha al-Saqi (O Cupbearer). The muwash-shah is a strophic poetic form that originated in al-Andalus (medieval Islamic Spain) and later became one of the principal vocal genres of the Arabic classical music tradition. The poem is traditionally attributed to the Andalusian physician and poet Ibn Zuhr (1091–1162), although the version most widely performed today survives through centuries of oral transmission, during which singers in the Levant adapted, reordered, and expanded its verses. As a Lebanese composer, this Levantine performance tradition is the one with which I grew up and through which I first encountered the poem.
In recent years, I have also become increasingly interested in the musical and cultural exchange between the Arabic-speaking world and medieval Europe, a rich area of inquiry that remains something of a blind spot within musicology. O Cupbearer reflects that interest by drawing inspiration from a poetic tradition born in al-Andalus, shaped by overlapping artistic and intellectual traditions. Throughout the poem, wine and intoxication become metaphors for ecstatic love, longing, and separation, while the cupbearer serves as both a literal bearer of wine and a symbolic dispenser of memory, consolation, and desire.
What continues to draw me to this poem is its remarkable vulnerability. Its intoxication is not simply one of wine, but of love, memory, and perception itself. The protagonist inhabits a state in which longing reshapes the experience of time, light, and the body, a poetic exploration of altered consciousness that resonates deeply with many of the ideas at the center of my own music. O Cupbearer | أيـــها الـــساقـــي took shape in part during residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Millay Arts. I am sincerely grateful to VCCA and Millay for the gift of time, space, and an artistic environment that profoundly shaped this work.
O Cupbearer | أيها الساقي was commissioned by the Flute New Music Consortium as the required work for the final round of its 2026 Flute Artist Competition, presented during the Consortium’s 2026 New Music Festival.
