The Rutgers Symphony Orchestra collaborated with the Rutgers University Glee Club and the Rutgers University Choir, the Voorhees Choir and the Kirkpatrick Choir to perform “On the Banks of the Old Raritan” at NJPAC in 2010.
Rutgers University’s alma mater, “On the Banks of the Old Raritan,” dates back to 1873, but was turned into an orchestral epic in 2010 by Michael Lucas Strother, then a student of musical composition at Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts. His composition was performed at NJPAC in Newark that year — at an event kicking off Rutgers’ Capital Campaign — by the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra along with the university’s Glee Club and its University, Voorhees and Kirkpatrick choirs.
Check it this unique performance of the venerable song, below.
The song’s lyrics were written by 1874 Rutgers grad Howard Newton Fuller, to the tune of the Scottish folk song, “On the Banks of the Old Dundee.”
New Jersey celebrated its 350th birthday last year. And in the 350 Jersey Songs series, we are marking the occasion by posting 350 songs — one a day, for almost a year — that have something to do with the state, its musical history, or both. We started in September 2014, and will keep going until late in the summer.
If you would like to suggest any songs to be included, please let me know in the comments section underneath the video. And if you want to see the entire list, either alphabetically or in the order the songs were selected, click here.
