Down by the Salley Gardens - Arr. Matthew M Tang

Down by the Salley Gardens
Arr. Matthew M Tang

“Down by the Salley Gardens” pairs a traditional Irish melody with a short lyric by W. B. Yeats, first published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889). Yeats stated that the poem was adapted from words he heard sung by an elderly woman in County Sligo, reflecting his broader engagement with Irish folk culture and its literary preservation.

The tune most commonly associated with the poem, often titled The Maids of Mourne Shore, predates Yeats’s text and belongs to the Irish oral tradition. Its limited range and modal inflections support the poem’s restrained, reflective character, presenting a retrospective meditation on youthful counsel ignored through direct language and balanced poetic form.

This arrangement emphasizes harmonic fluidity through the extensive use of inversions, avoiding prolonged root-position sonorities in favor of flexible voice leading. Such treatment enables frequent tonal reinterpretation and smooth modulatory motion, reinforcing the text’s underlying sense of disagreement, particularly in the line “with her did not agree.” Subtle tempo fluctuations further contribute to this expressive tension.

The work opens with a polyphonic introduction that establishes the textual material and foreshadows later modulation. The first verse features a baritone solo, creating an intimate sonority while introducing motivic material that recurs throughout the setting. Chromatic inflection in the lower voices leads to a gradual modulation into D major, articulated through imitative, Renaissance-influenced counterpoint and modal mixture, reflecting the flexibility of pre-tonal harmonic practice.

Text painting is employed through overlapping polyphonic entries on “with her did not agree,” in which rhythmic and textual alignment is deliberately avoided, resolving only at “But I was young.” Later passages expand the texture through paired vocal duets and imitative writing, including harmonic growth on “grass grows on the weirs” and a brief chasing motive, using contrapuntal texture and harmonic color to clarify the poem’s narrative trajectory.

Soprano - Lily Graham, Genevieve McGill
Alto - Anthony Ray, Karley Swallow
Tenor - Dillan Burnett, Jonah Gray
Bass - Jackson Fowers, Porter Hiatt

Recorded 12 December 2025 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City, Utah