Oxford authorities, both city and university, have long scratched their heads over May Morning. Now it’s the problem of revellers jumping off Magdalen Bridge into the none-too-deep River Cherwell below, while the Magdalen College Choir sings in the dawn from the top of Magdalen Tower, high overhead.

But in the 19th century, young townsmen caused annoyance by blowing horns and running riot, and 300 years before that there are reports of disturbances caused by “rabbles”.

Nor was the college itself always blameless when trouble broke out. University police called Bulldogs had to be called in to carry out airport-style security searches after college members began taking rotten eggs and other missiles up the tower, ripe and ready for hurling down on to the crowds below.

No one is quite sure when the custom of singing in May Morning from the top of Magdalen Tower first began. Some suggest that it has its origins in masses sung for the soul of King Henry VII, a patron of the college, who died on April 21, 1509. Certainly 17th-century Oxford diarist Anthony Wood recorded that Magdalen choristers “do according to an ancient custom salute Flora at four in the morning with vocal music of several parts”.

Responsible for that music of several parts tomorrow morning will be Daniel Hyde. He has been director of Magdalen’s choir for exactly one month, and when we met in his college rooms, he was knee-deep in packing cases: he was previously director of music at Jesus and St Edmund’s colleges, Cambridge, and has been commuting backwards and forwards as he finished off his role in Cambridge University’s recent 800th anniversary celebrations.

I wondered at what point Daniel was made aware of the fact that he would be expected to trudge up 172 steps to the top of Magdalen’s tower, and have both himself and his new choir at full concert pitch at 6am precisely (at least it’s moved forward two hours from Anthony Wood’s 4am) on May Morning.

“I was aware of the May Morning celebrations way before coming to Oxford — my sister was at university here. But I did ask at interview how it all works, because it’s one of the big traditions of the city. I’ve learnt, for instance, that we have a special set of old surplices that can be buffed up, and then get dirty again as we climb all those stairs.

“I’m actually quite a good early morning person, so it’ll only be an hour earlier than I’m used to getting up. As for the boy choristers, their normal daily rehearsal begins at 7.50, so I guess that most of them get up at about 6.30 normally, allowing time to have breakfast and get into college.

“In my experience, choristers are at their best first thing in the morning — they’re fresh and alert. Vocally you can warm them up and get them going before they even go into school and have registration at 8.50.”

After the clock has struck six, the choir always begins with the Latin Hymnus Eucharisticus.

“I saw a copy for the first time yesterday,” Daniel told me. “I’ll be rehearsing the choristers in it — we’ve got quite a young group of boys at the moment, so it’ll be new to some of them as well. But the academical clerks, the men of the choir, no doubt know it inside out and back to front, so they can tell me how it goes if there’s any problem!”

Coming from Cambridge, I wondered if Daniel had been the subject of any ribald jokes, snide remarks even, when his appointment to Magdalen was announced. Rivalry between the two universities is, after all, alive and well.

“I think the rivalry is very healthy. My colleagues were very pleased for me — I think they could see that I was moving to a job which is a significant step, or five, up in terms of career development. People have come to believe that the two places are very similar, but have a little scratch beneath the surface, and there are pronounced differences.

“I’m really looking forward to the slightly more traditional way of doing things here, and to the fact that Oxford is a much bigger city. Nobody in Cambridge said, ‘I can’t believe you’re going to the dark side!’.”

Daniel Hyde’s official biography on the university website doesn’t reveal whether he was a boy chorister himself. But he does seem to have been a prodigy, having become a fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the early age of 16. He then went on to become organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge — perhaps the highest award any young organist can aspire to. All of which suggests that he was an organist first, and a choirmaster second.

“I was a boy chorister, in fact, at Durham Cathedral. It’s really that formative experience which set me up — the great thing about choristerships is that it realises potential at such a young age.

“A boy is then usually able to get a scholarship to a secondary school — in my case I was able to go to a school which I would otherwise have been unable to attend. So, I went on a full bursary, which then enabled me to have all those benefits that put me in with a fighting chance at Oxbridge.

“So, that’s the background I’ve been soaked in. I was interested in playing the organ as a boy. I was always taken by the variety of sounds available, the whole orchestra you can have at your fingertips.

“When you spend, as it was then, seven days a week doing some sort of singing in a big cathedral, being taught to perform music to professional standards way above anything we were required to reach in other school activities, and the effect of that great Norman building in Durham with its beautiful arches, it all just fuelled my interest.”

Magdalen’s choir has an unbroken tradition stretching back to 1480. It has remained much the same size down the centuries, with 16 boy choristers, and 12 academical clerks, who are undergraduates of the college. The director of music still bears the ancient Latin title Informator Choristarum.

Talking to Daniel, he is plainly a man who very much cherishes tradition, while at the same time being highly delighted to find that his new Blackberry connects instantly to his Magdalen email address — a fact that he had just discovered when we met. Being only a month into his new job, he was naturally guarded when I asked if he plans to make changes.

“There will be changes that I’ll want to make — Barack Obama, ‘yes we can’ style. In a sense, the tradition is greater than any of us who are fortunate enough to be a part of it. I see my role as not only being custodian of what’s been done in the past, and what we want to continue doing, but also I have got ideas. Although I’m not necessarily going to put them out too early, they are things to do with commissioning new music, and looking at ways the choir can enhance its profile.

“Of course, we have Christ Church and New College as well, doing similar things — although each choir has its own characteristics, too. So, I’ll be looking at how we can develop those similarities alongside Magdalen’s unique selling points.”

Running a traditional choir like Magdalen at the beginning of the 21st century, Daniel has no doubt about his biggest challenge: recruitment.

“I think it’s fair to say that children nowadays lead far busier lives than they did 40 or 50 years ago. That might be because of the Internet, or mobile phones, or everything being more readily available. Recruitment of kids is a priority, it’s what I’m going to be working on this term.

“Some people might think that what we do in chapel is elitist, some weird religious ritual. But actually it’s an educational opportunity. We don’t require anybody in the choir to be a fully signed-up, card-carrying Christian. We just want them to be sympathetic to those people who may be, and vice versa. I feel that getting this fact out there is vital, because without applicants, the choir will cease to exist.”

“I feel very strongly that the university is, of course, here for education and learning, and that the choir is a part of that. My whole ethos is geared towards the education of the choristers: giving them something that will last a lifetime, whether or not they choose to become professional musicians.

“But also for the academical clerks, and the wider college student community, I want to give them something that might be spiritual, might be musical, might be purely cultural education.

“And of course, the May Morning celebrations are an opportunity for the choir to give something to the city of Oxford.”