More Harl McDonald

This is the second time that the music of American composer Harl McDonald has appeared on this blog - and in fact this record contains a reissue of his Children's Symphony from an LP featured here earlier. 

I wasn't especially kind to it the first time around, calling it "not very good." The second time around I would call it inoffensive, which I guess is an improvement. 

Harl McDonald

So why did I return to his music? Two reasons: first, because I heard a recording of a speech by film composer David Raksin, who was a McDonald pupil and had a high opinion of him. Second, because to my cynical mind the second piece on this record, "Builders of America," sounded like an attempt to replicate the popular success of Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" by setting words by both Lincoln and Washington to stirring music - and I wanted to hear how it sounded. 

Claude Rains

Musically the piece is more distinctive that the kids' symphony, but as for the words . . . well, judge for yourself. Poet Edward Shenton has the chorus chant these words about Washington: "George was a grave man / a bold man / a brave man"; and Lincoln: "Abe was a long man / a sad man / a strong man." It's just silly. On the bright side, actor Claude Rains is just fine as the narrator.

"Builders of America" started out as a poem for the Saturday Evening Post. Shenton, primarly known as an illustrator, both wrote and provided artwork for that magazine, among others. 

Although "Builders of America" is listed as being by the Columbia Chamber Orchestra and Chorus, the instrumentalists are almost certainly from the Philadelphia Orchestra. The piece was recorded in the Academy of Music on a day in April 1953 when that orchestra also taped Prokofiev and Johann Strauss under Eugene Ormandy. The Children's Symphony is from March 1950. 

McDonald, who died in 1955 and is mostly forgotten today, had a knack for getting his works recorded, and not just by the Philadelphia Orchestra when he was its manager. He also shows up in the discographies of Stokowski and Koussevitsky.

The new 2020 download includes a remastered Children's Symphony and a new transfer of "Builders of America." It also contains reviews from The New York Times and High Fidelity. The sound is very good for its time.