English Organ Music from Jennifer Bate

The British organist Jennifer Bate (1944-2020) was known for her dedication to Olivier Messiaen's compositions, but she also recorded the complete organ works of Mendelssohn, Franck and compatriot Peter Dickinson, as well as other music from her own land.

For this 1981 LP, titled An English Choice, she chose music of a lighter sort - all compositions but one dating from the first half of the 20th century, representing the famous (Elgar, Vaughan Williams) and those less well remembered (Harvey Grace, Norman Cocker).

Jennifer Bate

The longest work on the program is the Plymouth Suite by organist-composer Percy Whitlock (1903-46). Bate's concise and informative sleeve note explains its genesis: "His [Whitlock's] compositions for organ are firmly based in the English tradition — always tuneful, with a fine, broad sweep of melody, occasionally influenced harmonically by his admiration for Elgar and Delius. This fine Suite, published 1939, was written for the 1937 Congress of the Incorporated Association of Organists held in Plymouth, and the dedicatory initials at the head of each movement are those of members. In addition, the venue patently brought to mind sea-songs as well as the changing rhythms and moods of the sea."

Harvey Grace, Percy Whitlock

Appropriately, Bate recorded her recital on the Rushworth & Dreaper organ in St. Andrew's Church, Plymouth. It's a historic parish, dating to the 9th century, with parts of the present building dating from the 13th. The church was heavily damaged in the Second World War, and the organ installed in the postwar years.

St. Andrew's, Plymouth, before 1870

Ralph Vaughan Williams' beautiful Prelude on 'Rhosymedre' is one of a set of three organ pieces based on Welsh folk tunes. As Bate mentions in her notes, much of the interest in the piece is in the composer's opening theme, which then acts as accompaniment to the hymn tune. Percy Whitlock was a Vaughan Williams student.

Harvey Grace (1874–1944) was best known for being the long-time editor of The Musical Times and for being the organist of Chichester Cathedral. The first movement of Whitlock's Plymouth Suite is dedicated to him. Grace's contribution to the set is a Postlude on 'Martyrs', one of three Psalm Tune Postludes, this one based on a theme from the Scottish Psalter, 1635.

Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941) was a composer, educator and broadcaster who was organist at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and then Master of the King's Music from 1934 until his death. His Solemn Melody was originally written for organ and strings, and is here in an arrangement for organ alone by John E. West.

Henry Walford Davies, William Henry Harris

Sir Edward Elgar wrote his Imperial March for the 1897 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. It's an early example of his patriotic marches, transcribed for organ by George C. Martin.

Sir William Henry Harris is represented by two brief works - A Fancy and Reverie. The former was dedicated to the memory of Percy Whitlock. The latter is one of Harris' Four Short Pieces. 

Harris was organist of New College, Oxford, Christ Church, Oxford and St. George's Chapel, Windsor. Bate writes, "He was highly respected as a fine player, excellent choir trainer, and composed very much in the Anglican tradition."

Rushworth & Dreaper Organ, St. Andrew's Church

Bate closes her program with Norman Cocker's Tuba Tune, a favorite of organists. Cocker was the organist at Manchester Cathedral for many years.

The LP's sound is good and the playing is splendid. As for the music, in his Gramophone review Gordon Reynolds wrote, "It is astonishing, and pleasing at the same time, to see the repertory of pre-World War II bobbing up again. Not only had all these pieces gone out of fashion, they were regarded even in their heyday as being rather below the salt, musically speaking. The earthy tunefulness, which made the aspiring organists of the thirties curl up, is the very quality which has guaranteed the resurrection of these pieces."

Below is an advertisement that the record company placed in The Gramophone, suggesting that the recording was on "the organ of the 'Pilgrim Fathers' church." Well, while it is said that the Pilgrims worshiped in St. Andrew's before embarking on their sea voyage, the organ, as mentioned above, is of recent provenance.

The Gramophone, February 1982

Buddy Clark with Dick McDonough and Nat Brandwynne

It's been a while since I explored the recorded legacy of Buddy Clark (1912-49), the great pop singer of the 1930s and 40s. He died at the height of his career, and at least some of his later records are well known. But his earlier efforts, while he was a radio crooner and band singer for hire on many pop records, are less often heard.

Today's post covers 23 songs split between the contrasting bands of Dick McDonough and Nat Brandwynne - 10 with McDonough's jazz outfit and 13 with Brandwynne's orchestra from New York's swanky Stork Club. Twenty-one of these were made in 1936; the two remaining come from the following year. These comprise Buddy's complete recordings with the two bandleaders.

All songs show Clark's usual mix of good voice, diction, intonation and cheer. He's invariably a pleasure to hear.

With Dick McDonough

Dick McDonough

Dick McDonough was a short-lived (1904-38) jazz guitarist and bandleader, perhaps best known for his duets with fellow guitarist Carl Kress.

McDonough recorded fairly prolifically for the ARC labels (Perfect et al) in 1936 and 1937. These dates always included some of the finest jazz musicians of the day, even though most of the sessions were devoted to the latest pop compositions.

Bunny Berigan

All the numbers with Clark feature the lead trumpet of Bunny Berigan, who had recently left Benny Goodman's band and was recording both under his own name and as a session musician. The first four songs also include clarinetist Artie Shaw, who had become a recording bandleader himself just a few weeks before McDonough's June 23, 1936 session, and pianist Claude Thornhill, who himself would start making records as a leader in 1937.

Clark is not identified on the label of any of these 10 sides; I am again indebted to the discography of Nigel Burlinson for helping me to identify his appearances.

The first song in the June set was "Summer Holiday," with music by Johnny Marks ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer") and lyrics by Gene Conley (known for his work on "A Cottage for Sale," recently heard in a Willard Robison compilation). This charming song was recorded by many artists of the day.

Next came another current tune, "I'm Grateful to You," by the prolific songwriters J. Fred Coots (another Christmas maven - "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town") and Benny Davis.

McDonough reached back to 1921 for his next offering, the jazz standard "Dear Old Southland." Turner Layton was the composer - leaning heavily on the melody of "Deep River" - with lyrics by Henry Creamer.

From 1922 and the same writing and recording team came "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans," which had been touted as "a Southern song, without a mammy, a mule or a moon." This number has a intricate McDonough solo, also a tenor saxophone break, probably by Larry Binyon, and a short clarinet contribution, likely from Artie Shaw. For this side particularly, Buddy adopted a New Orleans accent reminiscent of Connie Boswell. Not terribly convincing, but then he was born in Boston.

Adrian Rollini

Moving on to an August 4 date, the first number was "It Ain't Right" by Bob Rothberg and Joseph Meyer, a song associated with jazz violinist Stuff Smith. The McDonough version has a robust bass sax solo from Adrian Rollini.

McDonough then recorded a relatively new song (from 1931) but already on its way to becoming a standard - "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" from Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, first done by Cab Calloway. McDonough again solos on this one.

For his August 5 session, McDonough began with "When the Moon Hangs High (and the Prairie Skies Hang Low)" from bandleader Ted Fio Rito, whose best known song is "I'll String Along with You." Buddy promises his beloved that "down that old, old trail we'll go" and "we can harmonize with the songs of the West."

"Midnight Blue" was much more suited to McDonough's style, particularly to forthright trumpeter Bunny Berigan. The song was advertised as "the hit song of the New Ziegfeld Follies of 1936." The 1936 Follies had a score by Vernon Duke and Ira Gershwin, and starred Fanny Brice. The show went on hiatus during the summer and when it returned had additional numbers by other hands, including Joe Burke and Edgar Leslie's "Midnight Blue," which was introduced by James Farrell and Jane Pickens.

It's interesting to note the amazing talents employed by the 1936 Follies. The show was choreographed by Robert Alton with ballets directed by George Balanchine. Scenic design and costumes were by Vincente Minnelli, with additional costumes by Raoul Pène Du Bois. The orchestrations were by Robert Russell Bennett, Conrad Salinger, Hans Spialek and Don Walker. The cast included Brice, Bob Hope, Eve Arden, Josephine Baker, Judy Canova, Gertrude Niesen and the Nicholas Brothers.

We move from the prairies and the Follies to the Pacific for "South Sea Island Magic" by Lysle Tomerlin and Andy Iona Long, best known for leading the the Hawaiian group Andy Iona and His Islanders. This piece was also recorded by Bing, who would do a Hawaiian-themed movie, Waikiki Wedding, the next year. (Songs from that film are here.)

To close out the McDonough set, we have the first of three songs from pianist-songwriter-personality Oscar Levant. "Afterglow" is one of his better efforts, done in collaboration with Al Stillman and Buck Ram. Buddy's reading is straightforward, but he does well by this worthy tune.

With Nat Brandwynne

Nat Brandwynne was a very young (25) bandleader when he made these recordings with Clark, although he had notable experience with Leo Reisman's orchestra, as part of a duo-piano team with Eddy Duchin that started a fashion for such setups. Brandwynne went on to several decades of success, primarily in Las Vegas, where he was making albums as late as the 1970s backing Diana Ross.

Nat Brandwynne

Clark's first four songs in this set date from April 1936. "It's You I'm Talkin About" is a peppy number from Florida Special, a B comedy with Jack Oakie taking a train trip. The tune comes from the noted Hollywood writers Mack Gordon and Harry Revel.

For his next number Buddy tells us "There's Always a Happy Ending" in every talking picture he sees. It's a likeable Siglar-Goodheart-Hoffman number also recorded by Rudy Vallee and by Chick Bullock with Jack Shilkret.

"Lazy Weather" is one of the many paeans to indolence of the time, perhaps designed to comfort the unemployed. This one was a product of Irving Kahal and Oscar Levant. Buddy's competition in the market was the young Perry Como in his first recording session with Ted Weems' band.

I wouldn't call "The Glory of Love" a standard, but it has been a hit more than once, first in Benny Goodman's recording with a Helen Ward vocal. The writer was Billy Hill, who otherwise specialized in buckaroo numbers like "The Last Round-Up," "Wagon Wheels" and "Empty Saddles."

Moving on to a May session, Clark and Brandwynne were the first to record "Take My Heart," a good song from Fred Ahlert and Joe Young. The bandleader's moaning saxophones are to the fore on this one, along with his ringing piano and Buddy's heartfelt singing.

"Long Ago and Far Away" is a Leo Robin-Ralph Rainger number from 1936's Three Cheers for Love. It predates the better known "Long Ago (and Far Away)" by Kern and Gershwin, which came from the 1944 film Cover Girl. Also from the 1936 film is "Where Is My Heart," not to be confused with "Where Is Your Heart," the song from 1952's Moulin Rouge and one of the big hits of that year. The Robin-Rainger tunes didn't do as well as their later namesakes, but are enjoyable to hear even so.

A July 1936 set of four songs begins with "Until Today," the final Oscar Levant song of this post, written with J. Fred Coots and Benny Davis. It was a new composition, recorded at the same time by Vincent Lopez, Ted Weems-Perry Como and others, I'm sure.

"Without a Shadow of a Doubt" is one of the best songs in the collection, even though I haven't been able to uncover much about its provenance. The writers are George Whiting, Nat Schwartz (aka Nat Burton) and J. C. Johnson.

Another fine song is "If We Never Meet Again," which Louis Armstrong wrote with Horace Gerlach, and recorded himself in 1936. Armstrong got the royalties, but Dick Stabile ended up with his photo on the sheet music.

Walter Hirsch and Lou Handman wrote "Bye Bye Baby" (not the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes song - or the Four Seasons epic for that matter). It's a bouncy piece that Clark handles well - although you should hear what Fats Waller and a kazoo make of it.

The 1936 sessions with Brandwynne were Brunswick productions, but the team moved on to Perfect for the final two songs in this collection, dating from March 1937. Unlike the Brunswick sides, Clark is unidentified on the labels for this coupling. "To a Sweet Pretty Thing" was a product of Fred Ahlert and Joe Young - not one of their best known songs, but a nice way to spend a few minutes.

The last item is "I Dream of San Marino," an idyll of lost love in an exotic location - one of seemingly dozens of such songs covering everyplace but Newark - this one neither better nor worse the mean.

These records were all remastered in ambient stereo from Internet Archive originals. The sound is good for the time, clearly displaying the contrasting styles of the bandleaders and Buddy's stylish vocals. 

Solomon in the Brahms Concertos

The great pianist Solomon has appeared here a number of times recently. This latest apparition brings two of my favorites - the Brahms piano concertos, both done with the Philharmonia Orchestra - the second in 1947 and the first in 1952, both for HMV.

Let's discuss them in the order of their recording.

Piano Concerto No. 2

Brahms' Concerto No. 2 is an extraordinary work, quite long due to its encompassing four movements rather than the usual three, and demanding for the soloist.

As was his pattern, Solomon surmounts all the challenges seemingly without difficulty, and without ever drawing attention to his own virtuosity. He is of one mind with the conductor, the Russian-born Issay Dobrowen (1891-1953). The interplay in the fourth movement is something to hear.

Issay Dobrowen

As the critic Richard Freed wrote, "Pianistically, Solomon is dazzling; musically, he and Dobrowen make sublime good sense, balancing the lyrical and the heroic, the grand and the intimate elements of the work in a clean, classical reading that has plenty of thrust but no heaving and churning in the name of Romantic expressiveness, no gestures toward monumentalism."

I enjoyed Dobrowen's work here and will be transferring some of his recordings of Russian music for a future post.

This recording comes from Abbey Road, April 29-May 1, 1947.

Piano Concerto No. 1

For the first piano concerto, HMV, the orchestra, conductor Rafael Kubelík and Solomon moved to the more resonant acoustic of Kingsway Hall, with sessions on September 3-5, 1952. For whatever reason, HMV didn't get around to releasing the recording in the UK until 1955, although it seems to have come out in the US somewhat earlier.

As was often the case with Solomon's concerto recordings, the critics were split in their verdicts. The Gramophone: "It seems to me that the combination of Solomon and Kubelík could have produced a superlative recording, but there must have been a lack of watchfulness in the making of the disc, for there are many flaws in balance and interpretation." Stereo Review: "The performance is certainly among the most outstanding on disc and will be the very first choice of many listeners. Solomon virtually owned this music: it held no problems for him technically. and he was obviously completely at one with its musical message."

Rafael Kubelík

The performance is not showy, to be sure, and the pianist was the opposite of flashy. As with Solomon's other recordings, there are times when more fire might be warranted, but that was not his way.

At the time of the recording, Kubelík (1914-96) was about to embark on his final season as the music director of the Chicago Symphony, an unhappy tenure that lasted just three years. As for this recording, Harris Goldsmith wrote in High Fidelity, "Rafael Kubelík conducts sympathetically, although I don't sense the extraordinary meeting of minds evident in the B flat concerto with Dobrowen." I think that's a fair comment.

I believe I have presented most of Solomon's concerto discs here in the relatively recent past. He also recorded the Tchaikovsky first concerto (twice), Mozart concertos and the Scriabin concerto. I have have the Tchaikovsky and Mozart recordings and plan to transfer them. The Scriabin work is not in my collection.

As was the case with a few of my recent posts, I've presented the Brahms concertos in ambient stereo, which adds some air around the mono signal and brings it forward. These transfers came from a very clean HMV reissue from the 1970s, as found in my collection (literally - I forgot I had it). The sound is remarkably good.

The download includes several reviews and a 1949 article on Solomon from The Gramophone.

Ad in The Gramophone, September 1955 (click to enlarge)

Robison Sings and Plays Robison

Composer-singer-pianist Willard Robison (1894-1968) has been a longtime interest of this blog, first appearing here a decade ago via his 1950s Capitol LP Deep River Music. Robison is remembered most of all for his compositions - "Old Folks," "A Cottage for Sale," "'Taint So, Honey, 'Taint So," among others. But he also was active in the recording studio as a bandleader, singer and pianist, particularly in the 1920s. Today's post brings those strains together via 29 recordings from 1926-30 that feature Robison in some combination of singer, pianist or bandleader performing his own compositions.

The Perfect-Pathé Recordings

The first record in this compilation, dating from July 1926, is characteristic of Robison, starting with its title, "Lonely Acres in the West." Loneliness and longing for home (his was in Missouri), are often themes in his songs. 

The other side of the Banner release contains one of his most famous songs, "The Devil Is Afraid of Music," which explicitly links his interest in music with revivalism - "The devil is afraid of music - sing, brother, sing!" the preacher intones.

The first two songs involve only the composer's voice and piano. Robison's singing was far afield from the usual stentorian approach of the day - he was conversational, wistful and calm. (He was advertised as the "whispering baritone.") It's said that Bing Crosby changed pop singing to a more informal manner, but the early Bing sounds almost operatic compared to Robison. With his quiet manner, Robison must have been more effective on records than in person - although he did lead a band for many years.

Indeed, the next song in this chronological survey is with his Deep River Orchestra. It is one of the numbers in the composer's eight-song Deep River Suite, of which four are in this collection. It is a catchy instrumental called "After Hours," recorded in early October. (This pressing had almost no bass as transferred; I rebalanced the sound at the cost of increasing the rumble.)

The second item in the suite, "Tampico," also with the Deep River Orchestra, comes from later in the month. The singer here is not Robison; he has been tentatively identified as Murray John. Whatever his name, his approach could not be more different from Robison's mellow reediness. Perhaps the bandleader did not think his voice could project over a band - he did record with a band later on, however.

The third item in the suite, also from October, is "Darby Hicks," another lively instrumental characteristic of the period, with good playing from the ensemble.

Information on the instrumentalists in Robison's orchestra is sketchy, although the Bix Beiderbecke discography claims that he and Frankie Trumbauer play on one session, not included here. And actually, that could be Trumbauer on the left in the band photo below. (Robison has his arms folded in front of the piano.)

Willard Robison and His Orchestra/The Deep River Orchestra

In November, Robison was back in the studio; this time without orchestra or vocalist (other than himself). He set down his first recording of another of his better-known songs, "Truthful Parson Brown." Here again we are back in a rural church, with Parson Brown exhorting his congregation, "Stop squirmin' / And pay more attention to my syncopated sermon!"

In December, Robison recorded one of his more conventional songs, "G String Melody," in that it deals with romantic love rather than rural preachers. This too involved the composer singing with his piano accompaniment.

The final recording from 1926 is also from a December session. "Music of a Mountain Stream" is characteristic both musically and lyrically. "In the golden West," Robison sings, "I have found a place where there's peace and rest. Far away from cares, all my troubles seem to vanish there." The label attributes the song to the Deep River Orchestra, but it is Robison and his piano.

In "New Hampshire Highway," Robison finds love but then has to leave, which breaks his heart - "I'll come again some day," he vows. This is another vocal and piano recording, dating from 1927; he would redo it with orchestra soon thereafter.

The final song from the American Suite contained in this collection is "Harlem Blues," from April 1927. It's an instrumental in the vein of Handy's "St. Louis Blues" - and even though it is credited to Robison on the label, Handy himself actually wrote it, in 1922. Robison was to re-record the song later for Columbia, where he attributed it to Handy.

Also from the April date comes "Blue River," one of Robison's best compositions. It's ascribed to "Willard Robison and His Orchestra" even though it was recorded at the same time as "Harlem Blues," which was attributed to the Deep River Orchestra. The vocals are by a studio group typical of the time, called the "Deep River Quintette" on the label. The contrived vocal arrangement could not be more different from the composer's own informal manner of singing. One wonders if Robison was the vocal arranger.

Next, the Deep River Orchestra appears in a remake of "New Hampshire Highway," with the vocal quintet. It's not one of the composer's best songs, but is far more effective in the solo version.

An August 1927 session brings another attribution anomaly. The song "In the Morning" is very much in the vein of other Robison creations - a preacher complains to the congregation that their contributions to the building fund have been very slow, so he exhorts them to "bring along your hammers and bring along your nails - we'll have a new home in the mornin'!" Later, virtually the same song would appear with a longer title and two co-writers (see below).

As you might have inferred from the comments on "Harlem Blues," Robison was an admirer of W.C. Handy. So much so that he wrote "Page Mr. Handy," a plea for him to write more music of the kind that Robison liked.

"My Kind of Blues" is the only solo piano piece in this collection. Although it has "blues" in its title, the work has a strong ragtime flavor. Some of Robison's earliest recordings (probably from 1925) were instrumentals - piano rolls for the Aeolian Company, including a version of the next song.

Robison's "Deep Elm" wasn't the only song of that title. There is a different and much better known blues song with a title referring to "Deep Elm" or "Deep Ellum." All of these are named in honor of a district in Dallas that takes its name from Elm St. (or "Ellum" St., pronounced with a Texas drawl). 

Robison's next number, "I'll Have the Blues Until I Get to California," is the first title recorded in 1928, probably in January. It is a remake of one of his earliest recordings, done for the Autograph label in 1924. The song is another lament for lost love, with Robison's woman taking off for California, and he making plans to follow her. "And if she turns me down," he sings, "I'll go to Chinatown. I'll smoke some hop, I'll never stop, because I've got a mess of weary blues to drown." (Mixed metaphor there, but we get the idea.)

The final recording in this group from Perfect-Pathé is "June of Long Ago," released in early 1928, about the time that Robison moved on to Victor. It was again done with the orchestra and vocal quintet. For whatever reason, Robison starts the arrangement with the opening of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, quickly launching into a tune akin to "Hands Across the Table" (which it predates). The song is a lament for lost love; the vocal quintet, or perhaps the arrangement, is more flexible this time.

The Victor Recordings

The Victor company matched Robison with its studio mainstay Nat Shilkret and his band in several 1928 sessions that produced three masters of Robison singing his own compositions. 

In this collection we have two remakes of favorite songs - "The Devil Is Afraid of Music" and "Truthful Parson Brown." Despite Robison's lack of voice, these recordings do work well, mainly because he was a far better advocate for his songs that the stilted studio vocalists of the time. Also, the orchestral arrangements add color to the music. "Truthful Parson Brown" even has a solo spot for what sounds like a contra-bassoon.

The third Victor recording is attributed to "Willard Robison, Baritone with Orchestra," although Shilkret again was in charge of the band. It is one of his best songs, if not the best, "'Taint So, Honey, 'Taint So." Let me quote some of its lyrics, which are characteristic:

Hey, people, you should come to Arkansas, 

Meet a friend of mine, old Aunt Phoebe Law, 

She's known to everyone for miles around, 

She will help you when friends forsake you and troubles bear you down! 

For those who come her way 

Are blessed when they hear her say:

'Tain't so, honey, 'tain't so, 

Spoke to the Lord and the Lord said no, 

'Tain't so, 

Honey, 'tain't so.

I learned the song from Bing's classic 1928 recording with Paul Whiteman, but even Bing is far more extroverted and dramatic than Robison. Hearing the composer's version, you can understand how he may have influenced the writing and singing of the slightly younger Hoagy Carmichael, and to a lesser extent Johnny Mercer, a great admirer of Robison.

In early 1929, Robison began recording for the Columbia family of labels, but before we get to those items, let's cover a few more Victor masters that date from late 1929.

"Don't Ever Be 'Fraid to Wade Those Troubled Waters" is another song with homespun advice. By this time, Robison had begun featuring what was then generally known as "Hawaiian guitar." Its distinctive sound could be also be heard on the Columbia recordings below. On those dates, the instrument is identified as an "octo-chorda," or eight-string guitar. Although no instrumentalist is named, the leading exponents of the octo-chorda were Roy Smeck and Sam Moore.

Robison returned to equating song with salvation in "There's Religion in Rhythm," the final Victor side. "Rhythm brings joy, and joy will break ol' Satan's hold," he assures us.

The Columbia/Velvet Tone Recordings

Robison moved on to the Columbia-Harmony-Velvet Tone-Diva set of labels in 1929. The next three songs are taken from Velvet Tone pressings.

While all the previous songs were written by Robison alone, he also collaborated with others. The first song in this group is "We'll Have a New Home in the Mornin'," essentially the same song as "In the Morning," also discussed above. Here, the song is attributed to Gene Buck and J. Russel Robinson along with Robison. The label says the song comes from the 1927-28 Broadway show Take the Air, which may have something to do with the co-credited writers. Russel Robinson, a former member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, wrote such Jazz Age hits as "Margie" and "Singing the Blues."

"Ploddin' Along" is a collaboration among composers Robison and Peter De Rose, and lyricist Jo Trent. Although both this song and "We'll Have a New Home" had words by others, they both seem like they could have come from Robison's pen.

"Wake Up! Chillun! Wake Up!" is a fine song co-written with Trent. In it, Robison exhorts his chillun, "Each golden hour, treat it like a treasure rare." Here he was backed by the Ipana Troubadors, a band that appeared on radio shows sponsored by a then-popular toothpaste. The Troubadors were led by Sam Lanin.

In "(Still Runnin' Round) In the Wilderness," Robison is back in didactic mode: "If you think that folks should help you, when you don't help yourself, then the book you should be readin' is laying on the shelf. You're still runnin' round in the wilderness."

Robison longs for the country life in "(Way Out There in) Tall Timber," where he vows to ride the rails until he recaptures the good ol' days in tall timber. With their octo-chorda accompaniment, this song and the previous number have a strong country vibe.

One of Robison's most famous songs, "A Cottage for Sale," completes this set. Here the lyrics are by Larry Conley, a one-time trombonist with Gene Rodemich's Orchestra, but they convey Robison's themes of loss and regret:

The key's in the mailbox, the same as before 

But no one is waiting for me any more. 

The end of our story is told on the door - 

A cottage for sale.

This 1930 record is attributed on the Velvet Tone label to "Willard Robison Accomp. by His Little Symphony." Robison would make no more records in the Depression-plagued industry until a 1937 session for Master. Later, he would produce 10-inch LPs for Capitol and Coral (links below).

More Robison

The best place to hear Robison's songs as interpreted by other artists is via a five-part compilation by the indefatigable David Federman. The download link is here.

I posted Robison's own Capitol LP on this blog in 2013. You can read about it (and download) here. It includes his recording of another famous song of his, "Old Folks" (written in 1938 with Dedette Lee Hill) in an exceptional performance. Also on the LP are Johnny Mercer, Paul Weston and an enchanting vocal on "Deep Summer Music" by an uncredited Loulie Jean Norman.

The Coral LP has Robison singing eight of his compositions, including another famous number, "Guess I'll Go Back Home (This Summer)," written with Ray Mayer. Here is a direct link to the Coral LP (not my transfer).

Finally, on YouTube you can see Robison with the Hall Johnson Choir in a 1930 short called "A Syncopated Sermon." It begins with a performance of "The Devil Is Afraid of Music" with Robison at the piano and the choir appearing in miniature on his piano lid being menaced by (and eventually vanquishing) the Devil. The film then leaves Robison behind and segues to a country church, where Johnson leads the choir in spirituals.

Alec Wilder wrote of Robison, "He had a special flair for gentleness and childhood, the lost and the religious," and that he demonstrated "there was more to write lyrics about than city life, that the world of memory, of remembered sayings and scenes, was as evocative as the whispered words of lovers."

Technical Note

I've adopted a new way (for me) of producing a so-called "ambient stereo" effect, which I've used in this collection. This is not the same as the old "electronic stereo" records of the 1960s and 70s, nor the ambient stereo I've used on a few previous occasions. This technique adds a modest amount of air around the mono signal, which helps to bring the performances to life.

The transfers were remastered from Internet Archive originals with many additions from my collection.

A Garland for the Queen

To celebrate a coronation 70 years ago, the Arts Council of Great Britain commissioned 10 leading composers to provide choral works in honor of the new Queen, Elizabeth II. In doing so, it was in effect recreating the famous choral compilation, The Triumphs of Oriana, that had attended the accession of Elizabeth I nearly 400 years earlier.

Sheet music

The resulting Garland for the Queen is unlikely to leave such a lasting impression, and was not particularly well received following its premiere by the Cambridge University Madrigal Society in the Royal Festival Hall. As critic John France noted, "it is conventionally regarded as being a generically substandard work from its ‘composer collective’."

That said, it is hard not to enjoy the works as prepared by the "collective" - Arthur Bliss, Arnold Bax, Michael Tippett, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lennox Berkeley, John Ireland, Herbert Howells, Gerald Finzi, Alan Rawsthorne and Edmund Rubbra. The first performance was led by Boris Ord, who recently appeared here leading music for an Easter service. He and his choir then recorded the program for a 1953 UK Columbia LP.

Today's post is devoted to what I believe to be the second recording of the "garland," as done by the Exultate Singers, conducted by Garrett O'Brien. That ensemble was previously heard here in a program of choral music composed for the 1953 coronation. (Both records were issued to commemorate the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.) The Singers also have appeared on the blog in a Vaughan Williams choral program.

Ad in The Gramophone, June 1977

In his Gramophone review, Roger Fiske wrote that the Singers "have a clean fresh youthful quality, especially the two soprano soloists. They have all been meticulously trained and agreeably recorded." He did complain about the sameness of the settings and the inability to understand the texts.

The latter complaint is a valid one, especially so in that RCA did not include texts with the LP. It's a shame because the words are by notable poets of the time - Henry Reed, Clifford Bax, Christopher Fry, Ursula Wood, Paul Dehn, James Kirkup, Walter de la Mare, Edmund Blunden, Louis MacNeice and Christopher Hassall. I have partially remedied the text void by hunting down the words for six of the 10 compositions.

Southwark Cathedral

I believe this program was recorded in London's Southwark Cathedral, where O'Brien was on the music staff.

In the process of posting three of the Exultate Singers' LPs, I have yet to find a photo of the group or its conductor. There is an ensemble with the same name today, but it doesn't seem to be related. RCA managed to misspell O'Brien's first name on the cover of this LP. Sic transit gloria mundi musicale.

ADDENDUM - A friend of the blog found a photo of Garrett O'Brien and the Exultate Singers, dating from a program in Grimsby, England in 1972 and taken from the local Evening Telegraph. He admits it is "laughably poor," but we can see O'Brien at the left and note that he wore sideburns in the fashion of the time, also glasses. See below.

David Munrow Conducts Purcell

My recent post of Henry Purcell's Funeral Music for Queen Mary led me to vow that I would post other music by that great Baroque composer. I can think of no better candidate than this recording from the Early Music Consort of London under its remarkable director, David Munrow.

The sessions took place in June 1975, less than a year before Munrow's early death at age 33.

David Munrow

Like the works on the previous recording, this music was composed to honor Queen Mary II of England. The earlier LP contained her funeral music; this one presents two brilliant birthday odes in her honor - selected from the six that Purcell composed, one for each year of her short reign (1689-94).

The earlier of the two on this record is Love's Goddess Sure, from 1692 and written in the French style. The latter, and perhaps better known, is Come ye Sons of Art, from 1694 and in the Italian style. Both enjoy brilliant performances by Munrow and ensemble.

Queen Mary and Henry Purcell

It is hard to overstate Munrow's importance in popularizing early music performance. This is particularly true of his advocacy of medieval and Renaissance compositions, although he also performed Baroque works. His forays into the later period were entirely successful, with this LP an eloquent example.

David Munrow and Christopher Hogwood

Munrow founded the Early Music Consort of London in the 1960s with keyboard player Christopher Hogwood. They gathered some of the best known names in early music performance, including violinist Simon Standage and viola da gambist Oliver Brookes. The vocal soloists for this record include soprano Norma Burrowes, countertenors James Bowman and Charles Brett, and bass Robert Lloyd. Bowman, who died earlier this year, was a particularly important figure and probably the most influential countertenor after Alfred Deller. His duets with Brett are a highlight of this record, but all the singers are splendid.

As Stoddard Lincoln wrote in Stereo Review, "In the performances ease prevails, nothing is forced, each phrase is lovingly turned, and gentle elegance wins the day."

Charles Brett and James Bowman

This recording, which comes from EMI's Abbey Road studios, does not have the sumptuous quality of the previous Purcell LP, which emanated from the very resonant King's College Chapel. It is very good in its own right, however, and well suited to the Early Music Consort's relatively small forces. My transfer comes from an excellent original HMV pressing.

Perhaps recognizing that Alfred Deller had produced a notable recording of Come ye Sons of Art years earlier, EMI commissioned its informative liner notes from Maurice Bevan, for many years the baritone soloist in the Deller Consort.

The download includes complete scans including the text booklet, photos, reviews, and a long Records and Recording article on Munrow based on an interview that took place during the recording of this LP.

To demonstrate some of the changes in performance practice over the years, on my other blog I've uploaded a 1931 recording of a Purcell suite from the London Chamber Orchestra and Anthony Bernard.