Composer Conversations

Lecture

Composer Conversations Hearing the Rainbow Harold Arlen's Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Tom Cimarusti, Ph.D., Program Coordinator and Professor of Music History, Florida Gulf Coast University

Though the 1939 film Wizard of Oz has become one of the best-known films of all time, initially it was only a moderate success. By the year 2000, however, the film had not only become an American institution, but Somewhere Over the Rainbow was deemed the greatest song of the century. Come join Tom Cimarusti as he explores this musical gem, highlighting the song's genesis, its melodic simplicity and harmonic sophistication and its ability to offer each of us a hope for something better and to whisk us to another world where "troubles melt like lemon drops."

This presentation is part of Tom Cimarusti's Composer Conversations series.

Tom Cimarusti

Tom Cimarusti

A native of Los Angeles, Tom Cimarusti received his Ph.D. at Florida State University and is currently a professor of music history at Florida Gulf Coast University. Although his primary research interests include 18th- and 19th-century Italian opera and song, chamber music and the music of communal utopias, he also lectures on world music and is an avid accordionist. He has presented his research at conferences in Europe, Asia and the United States. He is currently working on an edition of hymns associated with the late 19th-century religious cult, the Koreshan Unity. He has been the recipient of numerous research grants and excellence-in-teaching awards. In 2016, he founded the Center for Public Musicology, an organization that provides lectures, demonstrations and performances at venues throughout Southwest Florida. He lives in Naples with his wife, Christy, and two boys, Paul and Christopher.