A feast for the senses took place Friday night as art and music came together for MU’s Ars Nova.
Singers gave a concert inspired by artwork from the Museum of Art and Archaeology’s most recent exhibition, “Collecting for a New Century.”
The annual event took place at the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts for the first time, having been performed on campus in previous years.
The hour-long concert featured six songs, each meant to capture the spirit of a specific work from the exhibition. Between selections, conductor Brian Parrish and Museum of Art and Archaeology associate curator Mary Pixley introduced the songs and works of art, respectively, explaining the historical background and emotional context of each.
“The combined presences of the two media seems to make each art form more alive,” Pixley said in her introduction to the performance.
The evening opened with John Dowland’s somber, bittersweet “Come Heavy Sleep,” which brings to life Aubrey Beardsley’s illustration “How Sir Lancelot was known to Dame Elaine” from a 19th-century edition of “The Death of Arthur.” The illustration, which depicts a grief-stricken Dame Elaine kneeling next to her wounded and insane lover Sir Lancelot as courtiers look on, was thrown into sharp emotional relief by the song’s ethereal, hymn-like sound.
Other pairings from the concert included Antonio Lotti’s solemn “Crucifixus” with Albrecht Dürer’s “Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John” and Pierre Passereau’s “Il est bel et bon” with Fèlix Hilaire Buhot’s “The Country Neighbors.”
The performance ended with Jaakko Mäntyjärvi’s “Pseudo-Yoik,” a lively, cacophonous nonsense song meant to imitate traditional Lapland music, highlighting the dynamic atmosphere of Frederick E. Conway’s abstract painting “Mardi Gras Scene.”
Freshman Michael Neu had only two words for his reaction to the show.
“Breath taken,” Neu said.
Ars Nova soprano Kaitlin Foley said she attributed the performance’s success to the dedication and enthusiasm of those involved in the choir.
“We’ve been practicing once or twice a week for just a couple of months, but our director’s really good about planning everything to a tee so we don’t waste any time, and there’s a lot of individual accountability that goes into it as well,” Foley said. “We just all really enjoy the music, and I think that helps us get into the work.”
Unlike other exhibitions that have been featured at the Museum of Art and Archaeology, “Collecting for a New Century” has no single unified theme. Instead, it features pieces that have been acquired by the museum since the year 2000.
Mary Pixley said this allowed her to choose the best of the best from the museum’s overall collection, rather than being forced to only select pieces that represented a specific artistic movement, culture or time period.
In addition to the works featured in Friday night’s concert, the exhibition features Greco-Roman sculpture, a series of photographs taken by American pop art pioneer Andy Warhol and a caricature drawn by turn-of-the-century German artist George Grosz.
“It’s impossible for me to pick a favorite,” Pixley said. “And that’s really what’s so exciting about this exhibition — the quality of the art that’s in the gallery.”