New England Triptych

The piece unfolds in three linked movements, each built from a tune by the 18th-century American hymn writer William Billings.

"Be Glad Then, America" opens with a fanfare-like call in the brass before the strings and woodwinds spin out the hymn tune, building to a joyful, almost march-like climax.

"When Jesus Wept" is the quiet center of the piece. A single oboe sings the plaintive melody first, and the strings answer with overlapping entrances that sound like voices imitating one another in a round, giving the movement a hushed, chapel-like calm.

"Chester" is the movement most listeners remember. Schuman takes Billings's popular Revolutionary War song and turns it into a brassy, percussive romp, with the tune passed between sections, interrupted by fanfares and drum figures, and driven to a triumphant, noisy close that brings the whole work home.

Across the three movements, listen for how Schuman keeps returning to the plain, singable shape of the original hymn tunes even as he dresses them in bright modern orchestration, brass fanfares, and rhythmic punch.

William Schuman composed New England Triptych in 1956, drawing on three hymns and anthems by William Billings, the self-taught Boston composer often called the first American choral composer. Schuman had admired Billings's music since childhood and wanted to bring its directness and vigor to a modern orchestra. The work was premiered that same year and quickly became one of Schuman's most performed pieces, prized by American orchestras for its accessible, energetic character rooted in colonial-era song. Its final movement, "Chester," based on Billings's popular Revolutionary War anthem, has often been excerpted and performed on its own by bands and orchestras. The Triptych remains a frequently programmed example of mid-20th-century American orchestral music that reaches back to the country's earliest musical voices.