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Of Mere Being: Choral Works presents music by American composer Rodney Lister, created during his 30-year association with Greenwood Music Camp, in Cummington, MA. While Greenwood’s focus is on chamber music, the campers also play in the orchestra and sing in the chorus. Weekly concerts at Greenwood offer chamber, orchestral, and choral repertoire. In composing the Greenwood choral pieces, Lister was inspired by two of his teachers. When writing for “less advanced musicians,” Peter Maxwell Davies made certain his works “were as carefully and seriously made as possible and provided the musicians performing them with a satisfying musical experience.” “Virgil Thomson in a number of his works set texts that might have been considered to be obscure and difficult in a way that would make those texts seem clear and even sensible. Virgil also was happy to arrange for chorus works that were initially for a different scoring.” The works on Of Mere Being, scored for chorus and piano, originated as solo songs.

In his liner notes, Rodney Lister describes a musical evolution that occurred during his years at Greenwood. At first, Lister composed the choral pieces in what he described as “a fairly transparent tonal language.” Both Virgil Thomson’s Wheat Fields at Noon and Gesualdo’s Moro lasso inspired Lister to explore “a more tonally fluent triadic style.” Lister cites his 2010 choral piece The Bees as a turning point in his harmonic approach. The repertoire spans the years 1995–2019. The pieces are not performed in chronological order, so Lister’s two general harmonic styles intermingle throughout the recording. But Lister’s overall approach remains constant. The writing is homophonic for the far greater part, the product of the works’ evolution from solo song to choral piece. Lister’s music is affectingly lyrical, always respectful of the human voice, and focused on textural clarity. Featured poets include Wallace Stevens, Yeats, Lawrence Rabb, Frank O’Hara, James Merrill, Kenneth Koch, Gertrude Stein, Frank Bidart, Richard Wilbur, William Cullen Bryant, Virgil, and Shakespeare.

The Choir of the Church of the Advent, Boston, and pianist Chengcheng Ma, led by conductor Mark Dwyer, perform the Lister works in exemplary fashion, with clear diction and a lovely, exquisitely blended sonority. The recorded sound is excellent. The composer’s program notes and complete sung texts enhance the listening experience. Recommended.