Harvard Glee Club

The sixty-voice Harvard Glee Club is Harvard’s internationally celebrated men’s chorus and the oldest college chorus in America. In March 2008, the Glee Club celebrated its 150th anniversary. Founded by students in 1858 to sing college songs and glees. It was not until 1912, under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Archibald T. Davison, that the Glee Club developed a repertoire of distinction and gained a national reputation.

Throughout its distinguished history, the Glee Club has drawn its repertoire from seven centuries and has demonstrated particular expertise in the performance of contemporary American music, sacred repertory of the Renaissance, Eastern European music, and folk songs of the world. Summer tours of North America, Asia, Europe, Australia, and Scandinavia; eighty-eight annual spring tours within the United States; and fifty years of collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra illustrate the quality of the Glee Club’s remarkable tradition. The Glee Club has had five conductors during the past century: Archibald T. Davison, G. Wallace Woodworth, Elliot Forbes, F. John Adams, and Jameson Marvin.

Under the direction of Dr. Jameson Marvin since 1978, the Harvard Glee Club has enhanced its reputation as one of America’s premier collegiate choruses. Performances at five National Conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, eight international tours, concerts with Erich Leinsdorf and Marilyn Horne in Lincoln Center and Symphony Hall (Boston), memorial concerts for Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson, and an appearance at the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors are among the many achievements of the past thirty years.

Many of the foremost composers of the twentieth century have penned works for the Harvard Glee Club, including Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Gustav Holst, Randall Thompson, and Irving Fine. Since 1978, the Glee Club has commissioned new works for male chorus by Toru Takemitsu, John Harbison, and Virgil Thomson, and most recently leading up to HGC’s 150th celebration: works by Sir John Tavener, Morten Lauridsen, Stephen Paulus, Carol Barnett, Steven Sametz, Paul Moravec, and Dominick Argento. Over the past twenty years, the ensemble has released seven new recordings, hosted twelve Men’s Chorus Festivals, and performed major symphonic-choral works for men’s chorus to critical acclaim: Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, Schoenberg’s Survivor from Warsaw, Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, and Dominick Argento’s The Revelation of Saint John the Divine.

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Discography

American Choral Music for Male Voices

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening The Pasture A Walt Whitman Sampler Nunc Dimittis Almighty Father Dulcis Amor Shall I Compare Thee? Psaume 121 Ave Dulcissima Maria The Oxen- To The Meads The Sea Is Awash With Roses Quis Multa Gracilis The Little Horses Little Man Cantates Eamus McCord's Menagerie - Four Vivariations For Male Voices - II. Jerboa McCord's Menagerie - Four Vivariations For Male Voices - IV. Clam (or Whose Ooze) Lowlands Gentle Annie All Through The Night

"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!

Listen to Almighty Father in RealAudio.

The Archive Collection

Mon Coeur Se Recommande A Vous - Orlandus Lassus Nous Voyons Que Les Hommes - Jacques Arkadelt Petite Nymfe Folatre - Jacob Regnart Bonjour, Mon Couer - Orandus Lassus Dieu! Qu'il La Fait Bon Regarder - Claude Achille Debussy Quant J'ai Ouy Le Tabourin - Claude Achille Debussy Yver, Vous N'estesqu'un Villain - Claude Achille Debussy Four Motets - Leo Preger Benedictus - Palestrina Ave Verum Corpus - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Miserere - Gregorio Allegri Supplicationes - Palestrina Confitemini Domini - Palestrina Adoramus Te - Giovanni Francesco Anerio Tibi Laus, Tibi Gloria - Orlandus Lassus Iustorum Animae - William Byrd Stabat Mater Dolorosa - Palestrina Adoramus Te - Palestrina Sanctus And Osanna - Palestrina Benedicus And Osanna - Palestrina O Maria, Diana Stella - Unknown Authorship Miserere Mei - Tomas Luis De Victoria

G. Wallace Woodworth (1902-1969) is renowned as a choral and orchestral conductor, organist and music educator. At Harvard he studied history and music from 1924-26, and accompanied the Harvard Glee Club. This collection of recordings from his tenure as conductor of the Harvard Glee Club (from 1933) is performed by the HGC with the Radcliffe Choral Society. Included here are 22 Classical works, mostly a cappella pieces performed by both groups, but a handful performed by the groups individually. Favorites are three songs by Claude Debussy, "Dieu! Qu'il la Fait Bon Regarder," "Quant J'ai Ouy le Tabourin" and "Yver, Vous N'estes qu'un Villian;" several tunes by Palestrina, "Benedictus," "Confitemini Domini," "Stabat Mater Dolorosa," "Adoramus Te," "Sanctus and Osanna" and "Benedictus and Osanna." Jacob Regnart's "Petite Nymfe Folatre," Orlandus Lassus' "Mon Coeur se Recommande a Vous" and "Bonjour Mon Couer," Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" and Leo Preger's "Four Motets" are also some of our favorites. This material is difficult, powerful and not something that your average college glee clubs would consider learning and adding to their repertoire. A remarkable, beautiful collection from a pair of America's best women's and men's choral groups!

Christmas With

Shen Khar Venakhi Salve Regina Kyrie Gloria Lo How A Rose E'er Blooming It Came Upon A Midnight Clear Three Kings Of Orient Almighty Father Caritas Abundat Sanctus Stopping by Woods On A Snowy Evening Cantate Domino Ave Maria

The oldest college chorus in America, the 60-voice, all-male Harvard Glee Club was essentially a social club on campus after its founding in 1858, performing college songs and glees to the accompaniment of banjos and mandolins. It was not until 1912, under the dynamic leadership of its new conductor, Dr. Archibald Davison, that it began to develop a repertoire of distinction and earn a national reputation. Under conductor Jameson Marvin since 1978, the HGC has been invited to perform at 5 national conventions of the ACDA, and recently they have appeared at Boston's Symphony Hall and Kennedy Center, and at the Lincoln Center in New York. "Christmas With" is a finely-crafted, mostly a cappella Christmas collection of 13 songs. Favorites are the 13th Century Georgian wedding song "Shen khar venakhi," the Gregorian chant "Salve Regina," Josquin des Prez' "Gloria," Michael Pretorius' lovely "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming," the traditional carol "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," the organ-accompanied "Three Kings of Orient," Leonard Bernstein's "Almighty Father," Hildegard von Bingen's haunting "Caritas abundat," Thomas Tallis' "Sanctus," Randall Thompson's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," based on the Robert Frost poem, Hans Leo von Hassler's exquisite "Cantate Domino" and Franz Biebl's "Ave Maria." "Christmas With the Harvard Glee Club" is a richly harmonic gift to yourself or your loved ones that will add to your celebration and joy of Christmas!

Listen to It Came Upon A Midnight Clear in RealAudio.

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