"American Choral Music" celebrates the 150th anniversary of the 60-strong Harvard Glee Club, the oldest college chorus in America. These 20 songs are a sampler of the wonderfully varied repertoire of this great male chorus. Our favorites include a pair by Randall Thompson, "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "The Pasture," both lightly accompanied; Charles Fussell's dissonant "A Walt Whitman Sampler," Steven Sametz' "Shall I Compare Thee," Morten Lauridsen's "Ave Dulcissima Maria," Rodney Lister's "The Oxen-To the Meads," Aaron Copeland's exuberant "The Little Horses," Chris Tapani's mysterious, a cappella "The Sea is Awash With Roses," Irving Fine's eclectic "McCord's Menagerie, Four Variations for Male Voices, II. Jerboa and IV. Clam (or Whose Ooze)." Other favorites are the American Sea Shanty "Lowlands," Stephen Foster's lovely, lightly-accompanied "Gentle Annie" and the Welsh folksong "All Through the Night." "American Choral Music" shows off the varied but consistently excellent vocal talents of one of America's oldest and best Collegiate choral groups, the Harvard Glee Club! |