Fall 2026
"There is Sweet Music" – a verse from Tennyson’s lyric poem “The Lotos-Eaters” – extols the power of music to engage, calm, and inspire – perhaps a worthy aspiration as we face the division and uncertainty of our current times. Two choral settings of Tennyson’s verse, by living composers Robert Hobby and Daniel Gawthorp, open the first and second halves of Oriana’s concert; they are followed by beloved folk song settings from the British Isles by Gawthorp, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Alice Parker, and Ēriks Ešenvalds; expressive French songs of Claude Debussy, Camille Saint-Saens, and Francis Poulenc; and universal sacred settings by Heinrich Schütz, Salamone Rossi, Randall Thompson, Charles Villiers Stanford, Williametta Spencer, Ešenvalds, and Rosephanye Powell.Program
Robert Hobby (1962-) – There is sweet music
Daniel Gawthorp (1949-) – A Gaelic Blessing
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) – The Turtle Dove (arr.)
Alice Parker (1925-2023) – The Girl I Left Behind Me (arr.)
Ēriks Ešenvalds (1977-) – O Danny Boy (arr.)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) – Dieu! Qu’il la fait bon regarder
Camile Saint-Saens (1835-1921) – Les fleurs et les arbres
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) – La belle si nous étions
Williametta Spencer (1927-2026) – At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners
Daniel Gawthorp (1949-) – There is sweet music
Salamone Rossi (c.1570-c.1630) – Mizmor shir leyom (Psalm 92)
Randall Thompson (1899-1984) – Felices Ter (Thrice happy they)
Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) – Beati quorum via
Ēriks Ešenvalds (1977-) – O salutaris hostia (Eucharist hymn)
Rosephanye Powell (1962-) – The word was God
Rosephanye Powell (1962-) – Non nobis, Domine
Schedule
-
Cambridge
8pm Saturday, November 14, 2026
University Lutheran Church
66 Winthrop Street
Cambridge, MA -
Lexington
8pm Saturday, November 21, 2026
Follen Church
755 Massachusetts Ave
Lexington, MA -
Boston
5pm Sunday, November 22, 2026
First Lutheran Church of Boston
Berkeley & Marlborough Streets
Boston, MA