FULL AT TAHAJJUD or THE NIGHT-VIGIL (Preben Antonsen) Claremont CA 2026 Anne Dorothy Harley, Stacey Fraser

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: At Tahajjud or The Night-Vigil  
• Composer: Antonsen Preben   
• Libretto: extracts of poetry from Muslim female mystics (9th-12th centuries)  
• Venue & Opera Company: Garrison Theater, Scripps College Performing Arts Center, Claremont, CA  
• Recorded: February 22, 2026
• Type: Concert Live
• Singers: Anne Dorothy Harley, Stacey Fraser
• Conductor:   
• Orchestra: Instrumental Ensemble  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Voices of the Pearl  
• Date Published: 2026  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, gensubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  “My God! The stars have set, everyone’s eyes are closed, the rulers have locked the gates of the city, and every lover is alone with his beloved; this is when I devote myself to You.”

  At-Tahajjud is a cycle of fifteen songs based on the words of Sufi women who lived from the 9th-12th centuries. All texts are drawn from Dhikr an-Niswa Al-Muta ‘Abbidat as-Sufiyyat, a scholarly work compiled by Abu ‘Abd ar-Rahman Muhammad ibn al-Husayn as-Sulami in the 12th-century, and published by Fons Vitae as “Early Sufi Women,” with translation and commentary by Rkia Elaroui Cornell. It was commissioned by Anne Harley as part of her ongoing Voices of the Pearl series. Set in the original Arabic, it is structured as an all-night vigil, beginning at dusk with Rabi’a al-Adawiyya’s famous prayer written above, and ending at dawn with words that echo the opening.

  It is a comprehensive vision of the spiritual life, featuring a great variety of attitudes towards the divine. As the soul journeys toward its goal, it must undergo many contradictory things. But there is a connecting force that is present every step of the way — unquenchable longing (shajan).
  In its theological sense, shajan is a cosmic longing without object. It does not seek satisfaction, but is eternal. According to many Sufi women, it is the only truthful way to approach God. Their practice of ceaseless weeping is a testament to this. As Shawana says, to break off weeping is the same as abandoning love.

  I have heard Arabic musicians half-jokingly say that all Arabic songs have the same lyrics: “the Beloved is far away.” At-Tahajjud is no exception. Indeed, as I embarked on the composing of this piece, I wondered where the emotional variety could come from. Outwardly, every poem expresses the same thing — longing for the Beloved. How many ways could I contrive to portray this specific feeling?
  But by the end, I found that I had generated more variety in my music than ever before. I had discovered, and have since absorbed into my life, a truth that these women knew a thousand years ago: sorrowful longing is our connection to the infinite, and thus contains all things.
  At-Tahajjud, therefore, is a central expression of my musical theology. In this view, shajan is not just one musical mood among many — it is the wellspring from which music itself is drawn. It creates variety and multiplicity, giving the moods their depth and definition — not paving them over with sadness, but granting them their distinctiveness. Shajan is the prism through which the full spectrum of human feeling is refracted.

  PART 1: The Journey
  Movement 1: Ḥabībah al-ʿAdawiyyah
  Movement 2: Rayḥānah or Rayhana the Enraptured
  Movement 3: Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya
  Movement 4: Rābiʿah bint Ismāʿīl
  Movement 5: Shaʿwānah
  Movement 6: Rayhana the Enraptured
  Movement 7: Rābiʿah bint Ismāʿīl

  INTERMISSION: Artist and Scholar Panel
  led by Dr. Zahra Moballegh (Harvard Divinity School), Dr. Anne Dorothy Harley (Scripps College) and composer Preben Antonsen (Sibelius Academy)

  PART II: Gnosis
  Movement 8: Hind bint al-Muhallab
  Movement 9: Dhakkārah
  Movement 10: Dhakkārah
  Movement 11: ʿĀʾishah of Merv
  Movement 12: Rābiʿah bint Ismāʿīl
  Movement 13: Fāṭimah al-Bardāʿiyyah
  Movement 14: ʿAthāmah
  Movement 15: Ḥabībah al-ʿAdawiyyah

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