The land occupied by Salem State University is part of Naumkeag, a traditional and ancestral homeland of the Pawtucket band of the Massachusett. We acknowledge the genocide and forced removal of the people of Naumkeag and their kin and we recognize the ongoing colonization and dispossession of Indigenous homelands. We respect and honor the Massachusett tribe and the many Indigenous Peoples who continue to care for the land upon which we gather. We recognize our own responsibility to this land we occupy. We commit to continuously learning and sharing its history and that of the Massachusett and other Indigenous People who have been and remain here. We commit to develop and implement initiatives that work toward repairing the injustices continuously being committed on the Indigenous People of this land. We commit to making our own environmental impact on this land as sustainable as possible. We commit to a renewed and ongoing engagement with the Massachusett and all Indigenous People in and around Salem State.
To learn more about Salem State’s Land Acknowledgement please visit salemstate.edu/LandAcknowledgement.
This concert has been generously sponsored by
Christopher S. Hyland in memory of his parents
Samuel Francis Hyland (1911-1989)
&
Patricia Ellen Hyland (1914-1986)
MUSIC
The Salem State University music and dance department presents
The Choir of New College Oxford
Robert Quinney, conductor
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
7:30 pm
Recital Hall
This performance is presented in conjunction with Salem State University’s Center for Creative and Performing Arts.
PROGRAMME
Laudate pueri Dominum
G. P. da Palestrina (1525/6–1591)
O Lord, make thy servant William Byrd (1539/40–1623)
O Lord, in thy wrath Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
Hosanna to the Son of David Orlando Gibbons
Two pieces arranged for piano
J. S. Bach (1685–1750)
arranged by György Kurtág (b. 1926)
i. Allegro moderato from Trio Sonata I, BWV 525
ii. Sonatina from Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106
Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe
Komm, Jesu, komm
Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672)
J. S. Bach
Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
INTERVAL
Credo Joseph Vella (1942–2018)
from Learsongs William Mathias (1934–1992)
i. Calico Pie
ii. The Owl and the Pussycat
iii. The Pelican Chorus
from Seven Virtuoso Études after Gershwin Earl Wild (1915–2010)
i. The man I love
ii. Embraceable you
iii. I got Rhythm
Three Shakespeare Songs
i. Full fathom five
ii. The cloud-capped towers
iii. Over hill, over dale
Two British folksongs
i. Early one morning
ii. Blow away the morning dew
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
arr. Edward Higginbottom (b. 1946)
arr. Reginald Owen Morris (1886–1948)
Please silence all electronic devices. The audio or video recording of this concert is strictly prohibited.
PROGRAMME NOTES
In this auspicious year of anniversaries in the United States—and more particularly here in Salem—New College Choir is delighted to offer this concert. While most of this evening’s music is drawn from English and European traditions, we also pay tribute to our hosts: thank you for having us, and for being here tonight!
New College Choir was founded with the college, in 1379. Our founder William of Wykeham envisioned a place of scholarship, community and worship, all in one range of buildings—an innovation which became the blueprint for all the subsequent collegiate foundations in England. We have little evidence of what music, other than plainchant, would have been sung by those fourteenth century choristers and clerks, but it is likely that 150 years later complex polyphonic music formed part of their daily work. That is where our programme begins, with the music first of Palestrina (the date of whose birth not far from Rome is unknown but may fall in the early months of 1526—another anniversary), then of two later English figures.
Palestrina’s motet Laudate pueri Dominum is a setting of Psalm 113 for two equal choirs, which demonstrates the composer’s brilliant manipulation of choral texture: the eight vocal parts are deployed in a kaleidoscopic variety of combinations, often in response to the text (for example, a grouping of high voices at ‘in altis habitat’ and of low ones at ‘humilia’), and with majestic power in the closing stages.
William Byrd trod a delicate path between service to the Crown and his Catholic faith, which by the years of his maturity was outlawed in England. His anthem O Lord, make thy servant was originally a tribute to Queen Elizabeth I; we sing it in a later adaptation for a monarch who happily bears the same name as the current King. Unlike Byrd, Orlando Gibbons was born into the Elizabethan religious settlement and may be regarded as the first great composer of ‘Anglican’ music. His genius for combining clarity of text with music of intricate texture and colourful, madrigalian character, is evident in two contrasting anthems: the penitential O Lord, in thy wrath rebuke me not and the lively, bustling Hosanna to the Son of David.
Two pieces by J. S. Bach (arranged by the Hungarian centenarian György Kurtág) shift our focus to the central German kingdom of Saxony, which was served by two composers whose careers span 150 years. Heinrich Schütz was Kapellemeister to the Saxon court in Dresden, but his Musikalische Exequien was commissioned by the widow of the Count of Reuss-Gera, whose late husband’s sarcophagus was engraved on the inside with the texts set by Schütz. The second movement, Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe, is for two equal choirs, with a text from Psalm 73. The
same scoring is employed by J. S. Bach in his motet Komm, Jesu, komm, which was probably also written for a funeral, in the early 1730s. Bach’s text is—unusually for him—a poem, and he sets the two stanzas in very different ways. The first sets the two choirs in ‘antiphonal’ opposition and undergoes two changes of metre (the way the music’s pulse is divided), culminating in the long and lyrical ‘du bist der rechte Weg’. The second stanza unites the choirs in what at first seems to be a simple chorale. The appearance of simplicity often characterises the music of Brahms—as in the opening paragraph of Schaffe in mir, Gott, where the effect of placid lyricism conceals a canon per augmentatione, with the second basses singing the same notes and rhythms as the sopranos, but at half the speed. There follows a pathos-laden fugue (‘cast me not away from thy presence’); the music then takes a more consoling turn (‘bring me the comfort of thy help’), before finally bursting into a dancing finale unexpectedly reminiscent of the composer’s Liebeslieder waltzes.
The second half of our concert begins with the Credo by Joseph Vella: not a setting of the creed from the Mass Ordinary, but of an original text by Salem native Christopher S. Hyland, who has generously sponsored our visit, in memory of his parents Samuel Francis Hyland (1911–1989) and Patricia Ellen Hyland (1914–1986). Heard tonight with piano accompaniment, arranged from the original orchestral score, and soloists from the choir, this powerful work is a plea for peace, fraternal love, and respect for nature—all reflections of the ‘Eternal Being’. The piece forms part of a series of collaborations between Mr. Hyland and the late Maltese composer and conductor Joseph Vella.
The remainder of the programme is avowedly secular, though in some respects no less traditional than the sacred music already performed. Indeed, we end with two very venerable folksongs: ‘Early one morning’ and ‘Blow away the morning dew’, both of which tell stories of frustrated or disappointed romantic ambitions, though in rather different circumstances. Before that, three nonsense songs by Edward Lear, set for upper voices and piano duet by the Welsh 20th Century composer William Mathias, and—via a virtuosic interlude courtesy of Gershwin and Earl Wild—the exquisite Three Shakespeare Songs by Vaughan Williams. These perfectly formed miniatures employ three contrasting texts by our greatest English-speaking writer—two from The Tempest and the third from A Midsummer Night’s Dream—that, one imagines, might have been known to the original English colonists of this city. Vaughan Williams brilliantly captures their character—respectively elegiac, mystical, and mercurial—in his own characteristic style, an eclectic mix of folksong, early Modern English music and Ravel.
CREDO
We Are Like unto Thee In Peace, In Love, Wondrous To Behold.
Thy Eternal Being, Unto The Ages, Orbit Unbroken, Nature Respected.
We Believe….Credo…Credo…Credo….Credo….
Wondrous To Behold, Glorious Spirit, Eternal.
We Are Like unto Thee In Nature Respected, In Countenance Wondrous To Behold.
Thy Eternal Creations, Unto The Ages, Orbit Unbroken, Nature Respected.
We believe…..Credo….Credo….Credo….Credo…. Wondrous To Behold.
THE CHOIR OF NEW COLLEGE OXFORD is one of Britain’s best-known choral ensembles with an international reputation for its performances across wide-ranging repertoire. When William of Wykeham founded his ‘New’ College in 1379, a choral foundation was at its heart, and daily chapel services have been a central part of college life ever since. The choir is made up of sixteen boy choristers and fourteen adult clerks; the latter a mixture of professional singers and undergraduate members of the college.
The choir is often to be heard in concert around the world and on broadcasts and recordings. Touring is an important part of the choir’s profile, and recent highlights have included singing for Pope Francis in the Sistine Chapel, Rome, and concerts in the USA and Malta in 2023. Last year they toured Sweden, and they have recently returned from performing the Palace of Versailles and a tour to China where they
performed in the Symphony Hall in Shanghai and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. They are delighted to be returning to the US just before Easter to give concerts in New York and Salem.
The choir has released several discs with director Robert Quinney, including Nowell sing we!, music from the college Christmas carol services, Parry: Songs of Farewell and other choral works , and their debut recording with Linn Records in 2020: Sheppard: Media Vita. They have recently released the premiere of a new anthem by Sir James MacMillan and their most recent CD, of music by William Mundy, was launched in May 2024; a disc of Tallis is in post-production and will be released later in October 2026.
Robert read music at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was organ scholar. After four years as assistant master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, he became sub-organist of Westminster Abbey in 2004. While at the Abbey he performed on concert tours to the United States, Australia and Russia, at several televised services, including the Marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. From 2013 he was director of music at Peterborough Cathedral, before moving to New College in September 2014. His role in Oxford enables a unique synergy between the latest scholarship and the academic traditions of the university; performance and research illuminate each other in the work of New College Choir. His particular research interests have borne fruit in regular performances of J. S. Bach’s church music in the context of reconstructed liturgies; and he is committed to refreshing the choral repertory by commissioning new works.
HUGH ROWLANDS is Assistant Organist at New College, Oxford. Previously he was Assistant Master of Music at the Chapels Royal, HM Tower of London, Acting Director of Music at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, and Deputy Director of Music at Haileybury.
As a soloist, he has given recitals at major venues in the UK, including Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, and the St Albans International Organ Festival. Hugh has worked with a broad range of leading groups and performers, appearing across the UK and Europe,
including at Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Centre, the Paris Philharmonie, the Southbank Centre, Shanghai Symphony Hall, and the National Centre for Performing Arts, Beijing. Recent engagements include collaborations with the English Chamber Orchestra, Alamire, London Choral Sinfonia, Grange Festival Opera, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the London Contemporary Orchestra, and Icelandic duo, Jònsi and Alex. He has recorded on the SOMM and Albion labels, and performed on BBC Radio 3. In 2024, he made his first solo recording of the Klais organ at Haileybury. A regular member of the James McVinnie ensemble, he has performed at the Barbican Centre, Saffron Hall, Bold Tendencies, and the Southbank Centre. Hugh is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.
MARCUS McDEVITT is a prize-winning Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and currently the senior organ scholar at New College, Oxford studying music, where his duties include regularly accompanying the choir in their daily service schedule, as well as for concerts and tours. His musical education started as a chorister in the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge where he sang on a number of recordings and international tours, including the Once in Royal solo at the 2016 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. Prior to New College, Marcus was organ scholar at Guildford Cathedral between 2022-2023. Recent highlights include solo performances at the St Albans International Organ Festival and in Beijing at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, as well as featuring on a recent Choral Evensong live on BBC Radio 3. He is also a keen pianist and continuo player, with recent projects including continuo for Bach’s St John Passion with New College Choir and repetiteur for New Chamber Opera’s 2025 summer production of Salieri’s La scuola de’ gelosi. He is New Chamber Opera’s studio director and was musical director of a production of Salieri’s Falstaff. He has studied piano with Christopher Hughes and Alec Hone and organ with Nigel Kerry, currently studying with William Whitehead.
JOSEPH HYAM is currently the Junior Organ Scholar at New College, Oxford, where he is in his second year reading English. While in 6th form, he attended the junior department of the Royal College of Music, where he studied the piano with Richard Uttley, and the organ with Martyn Noble, as well as receiving lessons at school with Ghislaine Reece-Trapp.
Following this he took a gap year where he studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Richard Pinel. During this time, he became a prize-winning Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and was highly commended in the 2024 Northern Ireland International Organ Competition.
He currently receives lessons from Steven Farr.
SPRING 2026
UPCOMING EVENTS
salemstate.edu/arts
Safiya Tarbell and Kallyn Lavallee
Honors in Art Exhibition
March 30 – April 17
Winfisky Gallery, Ellison Campus Center
University Chamber Orchestra
April 16, 7:30 pm
Recital Hall
Sweeney Todd
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
April 17-19 and April 24-26
Sophia Gordon Center salemstatetickets.com
University Choral Ensembles
April 29, 7:30 pm
Recital Hall
Salem Dance Ensemble
May 2, 7:30 pm and May 3, 2 pm
Sohpia Gordon Center
Visit salemstate.edu/arts for information about these and other arts events.
This campus event is open and accessible to all members of the campus community. For accommodations and access information, visit salemstate.edu/access or email access@salemstate.edu.
