If there is one ensemble that is necessary to see during one’s stay at Oberlin, it is musicology professor Steven E. Plank’s Collegium Musicum Oberliniense, informally known simply as Collegium. This group is unique at Oberlin in its accuracy, tambour, repertoire and inspiring love of music and singing. Performing last Saturday in Fairchild Chapel, Collegium presented a captivating program that conjured peace and wonder in its audience.

Opening the program, which consisted of a brilliantly assembled fusion of sacred and secular pieces, Collegium performed O Bone Jesu by Robert Carver. The ensemble of nearly 50 mixed-major students stood in a semi-circle around Fairchild’s altar. Because of the minimal use of vibrato, they could easily have been mistaken for a boy’s choir.

O Bone Jesu, a pre-Reformation motet, features 19 separate vocal parts and, in its libretto, reflects on the kindness and forgiveness of Jesus. Repeating Jesus’s name at a minimum of thrice per line, this piece should not have been terribly exciting; however, the interplay of these praises with impressively executed contrapuntal activity started the performance with an effective eye-opener.

The highlight of the evening was the most modern work, the only one composed after the mid-1600s and proposed as a “pastoral interlude” in Plank’s program notes. James MacMillan’s musical setting of Robert Burns’ The Gallant Weaver contained a fusion of emotive 20th century dissonances (or “sensuous” harmonies to Plank), Celtic decorative aesthetic and gorgeous text. Collegium’s interpretation was, perhaps slightly hasty. But this is a trifling complaint from one who would have been content for the song never to bear cadence.

The program also included the Te Deum, Magnificat, and Nunc dimittis, canticles in William Byrd’s The Great Service. The ensemble responded with astounding vigor and humor to Plank’s vibrant conducting, and it was obvious the musicians were there for the right reason: they loved the music. Also by Byrd, What Pleasures Have Great Princes, O Lord, Make Thy Servant Elizabeth and Sing Joyfully were performed by a smaller ensemble without direction. Lacking Plank’s leadership (and the mass of the other singers), the smaller group communicated with animation to the audience: one vocalist was even caught winking!

It is truly a phenomenon to have such beautiful music arise out of a group of students, some of whom have little vocal training. Many of the members of Collegium are Conservatory students who are studying instrumental performance, but there is also a smattering of College students who take part in the ensemble.

Ask any of its loyal audience members who rose to a standing ovation at Saturday’s performance: Collegium provides an enlightening, inspiring and captivating experience.