Americana from Alec Wilder, Bruce Catton and Carl Sandburg

Here is an interesting recording I transferred by request, with two works by that distinguished musician Alec Wilder.

Alec Wilder

First is an earnest piece written upon the centennial of the US Civil War, Names from the War, which sets verse by the popular historian Bruce Catton. Dave Garroway is the narrator.

Bruce Catton

That work is coupled with an instrumental Carl Sandburg Suite, which is taken from tunes chosen from Sandburg's American Songbag; it is not settings of his poetry.

Carl Sandburg

Some background -  Wilder was primarily a songwriter, but he also wrote quite a bit of instrumental music. Catton was best known for A Stillness at Appomattox, one of his several books on the Civil War. 

Walter Ehret

Dave Garroway was a television personality who was for several years the host of NBC's Today Show and the weekly program, Wide, Wide World. He appeared here recently introducing a jazz record featuring Lee Wiley. Conductor Walter Ehret, a Juilliard graduate, was the director of music for the Scarsdale schools and a widely published author of educational materials.

The record unfortunately received little fanfare, and the one review I have found did not like it. At all.

My own view is that Catton's narrative for Names from the War is evocative, and Garroway does a fine job reading it. I don't think the music gets in the way, although it is certainly from the standard patriotic mold. I enjoyed the Carl Sandburg Suite. The performances are good.

The record had a few sound problems that I've addressed, as follows.

First, the music was recorded in the very W-I-I-I-D-E stereo that was common in the early days. (The record was released in 1961.) I've narrowed it so that the left and right channels don't appear to be coming from different counties.

Dave Garroway, minus his hat

Next, Garroway sounded like he was speaking through his hat. I re-equalized his voice.

Finally, there was some groove damage or a pressing fault on the left channel early in the Carl Sandburg Suite. I've addressed this, although some minor noise may remain.

The record has a gatefold cover; the back features The Carl Sandburg Suite

And just so you don't think you're missing something, this is one of the shortest 12-inch LPs I own - 26 and a half minutes.

LINK

Hugh Martin, Alec Wilder and Grandma Moses

In the aftermath of the Great Depression and World War II, there was a profound hunger for peace, normality and simple, homespun virtues in the US. In this environment, the naive, idealized, country paintings of octogenarian Anna Mary Robertson Moses became very popular.

Grandma Moses, as she became known, was "discovered" by an art collector who saw her work in a small town drug store window (or so the story goes). This was in 1938, and in only a few years Moses' paintings had become quite well known and began to be used for commercial purposes. (One obvious use was Christmas cards - see the 1948 Hallmark ad below.)

"Country Fair" - 1950

It didn't hurt that Moses was a good looking woman who was the very image of the idealized Grandma; nor that she was highly quotable. (It's hard to say at this remove whether she was truly a font of bon mots, or if reporters embellished to make a better story.)

Anna Mary Robertson Moses

As for her art, it displays a kind of rural transcendentalism, with the perspective usually that of an observer in a low-flying blimp. Not that I am against this kind of thing - it is undoubtedly charming and evocative, and I have to admit that there is a pretty good example of the genre in my basement.

Alec Wilder and Hugh Martin

"Charming and evocative" is also a apt description of the music on this disc, which dates from 1951. It contains music from a film documentary on Moses, composed by Hugh Martin, better known for Broadway and Hollywood musicals such as Best Foot Forward, Meet Me in St. Louis and Athena. Martin was primarily a vocal arranger, so he called on fellow composer Alec Wilder to "develop and orchestrate" his tunes. The result is firmly in the Americana genre - one I find irresistible. It's a nice tribute to two of my favorite composers. Daniel Saidenberg conducts; there are vocals by the excellent studio singer Sally Sweetland.

[Note (June 2023): These recordings have now been remastered in atmospheric ambient stereo.]

Alec Wilder's Hansel and Gretel with Barbara Cook

A while back we offered a selection of octets from the American composer and songwriter Alec Wilder (courtesy of Bill Reed). Today we have a musical that he wrote for American television back in 1958, with lyrics by frequent collaborator William Engvick.

The score contains one glorious and touching number, Evening Song (and its variant, Morning Song), which everyone should hear as performed here by the sublime Barbara Cook. The balance of the score is lesser Wilder, but Evening Song must be heard.

I don't mind telling you that I had a heck of a time transferring this badly mistreated pressing. But the results sound good - with the exception of a few skips in the Finale. Speaking of skips, I skipped transferring the second side of this record, which contains an indifferent performance of an orchestral suite from Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel.

One other note: the musical numbers are separated by narration from Red Buttons. You won't want to hear that more than once, so I have put it into separate tracks.

This is for Mindy of Mindy's Bright Lights of Broadway at Franklynot.

NEW LINK (JUNE 2014)