Carl Fischer's 'Reflections of an Indian Boy'

Carl Fischer had a dream of finishing a suite of music reflecting his Native American heritage. He never was to fulfill that dream during his brief lifetime, but after his death, his powerful friends in the music business - Frankie Laine, Victor Young and Paul Weston - brought his ideas to life in the beautiful composition, Reflections of an Indian Boy, released by Columbia on LP in 1956.

Fischer (1912–1954) - who, despite his German name, was three-fourths Cherokee - was best known as Laine's pianist. He also was a talented composer, writing the songs "We'll Be Together Again," "Who Wouldn't Love You," "It Started All Over Again" and "You've Changed," all of which became popular. But his ambition was to compose a more elaborate work, and he had been working toward that end at the time of his death. The suite, however, had never been written down - it existed only in a piano recording made for composer Victor Young. After Fischer's death, Marvin Wright transcribed the tape, Young orchestrated it, and Laine set about arranging a performance. Only a few months later, he succeeded - a premiere with the Cleveland Orchestra during its summer season, Victor Young conducting.

Carl Fischer, Frankie Laine and a gold record -
I believe for their "We'll Be Together Again"

Reflections of an Indian Boy is a lovely piece of music, handled beautifully in this performance conducted by Paul Weston. The cover calls it a "tone poem," but it actually is a series of tone poems illustrating the young man's life, presumably "reflecting" the composer's own experiences. It does not use Native American musical themes, and there is little here that would be identified as stereotypically "Indian." It is most similar to the compositions of Ferde Grofé and reminiscent of film music, surely because of Young's orchestrations.

Columbia put its promotional might behind the LP, and it sold well. That said, far more people have heard it through its second life as the soundtrack to a popular outdoor drama, Tecumseh!, which has been performed for the past 45 years at the Sugarloaf Mountain Amphitheatre in south central Ohio. The producer of Tecumseh! was familiar with Weston's record, and decided to use it as a backdrop to the outdoor drama he was planning on the life of the Shawnee leader. For this purpose, he enlisted Erich Kunzel, the longtime conductor of the Cincinnati Pops, to make a new recording with the London Symphony, which is available today via Amazon and presumably other sources.

This post is the result of a suggestion (really more of a plea) from David Federman, and is a collaboration between me and my friend Ernie, who often contributes materials to the blog. The flawless transfer is Ernie's work; the scans are my doing. Columbia's sound is excellent.

Fischer and Laine at a recording session