Over the past few years, Divine Art Records and its new-music imprint Métier have developed an ongoing series of albums of music by composers from the Irish Republic, to quite considerable critical acclaim.  The latest addition to this collection will be the first album celebrating the choral music of Rhona Clarke, a Dublin based composer who has created a wide range of work in which choral and vocal music play a significant part. The programme spans a period of almost thirty years from A Song for St Cecilia’s Day (1993) to the four-movement Requiem (2020), written during ‘lockdown’ due to the Covid pandemic; a work which is compact and does not follow the full traditional setting of Requiem Mass texts. The texts range from Catullus (c.55 BC) and anonymous medieval lyrics to the late Irish poet, writer and pugilist Ulick O’Connor. Besides the Requiem, there are a number of other settings of Christian sacred texts: O Vis Aeternatis (Hildegard), Veni Creator, Two Marian Anthems and Rorate Caeli, but also lyrics which look at death from very different perspectives: Ave Atque Vale, Catullus outpouring of grief on his brother’s death and the humorous children’s rhyme with its depiction of worms crawling in The Old Woman.
 
All of the works are composed for mixed a capella choir and vary in levels of complexity: some were commissioned by professional and others by amateur choirs. ‘Pie Jesu’ and Do Not Stand by my Grave are straightforward homophonic pieces each involving a solo soprano; ‘Lux Aeterna’ and Veni Creator are more dissonant, and more complex texturally while other works use extended techniques such as stamping, clapping and long glissandi.
 
Every piece seeks to define a mood, with plenty of contrast here from the joyous salute to ‘Musick’ in A Song for St Cecilia’s Day and the reverential O Vis Aeternitatis to the poignancy in the Introit of Requiem. On this recording, all performances are by the superlative, internationally acclaimed State Choir Latvija directed by Maris Sirmais. The recording is due to take place in Riga at St John’s Church from 5-9 July 2021 and should be released by Autumn 2021.
Rhona Clarke is celebrated for her eclectic and varied approach which produces fascinating and often surprising work, from her fresh but relatively conservative  Piano Trios to the incredible, avant-garde, Sprechstimme-with-rock-percussion piece “…smiling  like that…” all available on Métier recordings.

 ‘Sempiternam’ Choral music by Rhona Clarke (MSV 28614)

Composer: Rhona Clarke (b.1958)
Artists:  Latvia State Choir, conducted by Maris Sirmais

Works

• Requiem (2020): Introit/Lux Aeterna/Pie Jesu/In Paradisum
• Two Marian Anthems (2007): Regina Caeli and Salve Regina
• ‘Make we Merry’ – Three Carols on Medieval Texts (2014): (Glad and Blithe/Lullay my Liking/Make we Merry)
• The Kiss (2008)
• A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day (1991)
• Do Not stand over my Grave (2006)
• The Old Woman (2016)
• Rorate Caeli (1994)
• Ave Atque Vale (2017)
• O Vis Aeternitatis (2020)

Rhona Clarke on Métier