We start off this season's holiday shares with an early Columbia LP that combined two 78 sets, one from England and one from the US - one from the Celebrity Quartette, the other from the Mount Holyoke College Glee Club.
Also today, we have another welcome contribution from David Federman - details below.
The Celebrity Quartette
On the LP, the better known ensemble may be the Celebrity Quartette, a super-group of sorts selected from among the finest song and oratorio exponents that the UK had to offer. I believe this was an ad-hoc group; at any rate, English Columbia later recorded an ensemble with a somewhat different members under the same grand title.
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| Gladys Ripley, Isobel Baillie |
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| Harold Williams, John McHugh |
The repertoire is familiar fare, save perhaps for "Christians, Awake," the lovely Anglican hymn that is not heard as often in the US. All are exceptionally well done; the singers may be celebrities, but they are suitably reverent in this religious fare. Isobel Baillie is featured throughout, and Harold Williams is impressive in the Coventry Carol.
English Columbia issued four of the six carols in late 1947. Columbia in the US brought all six out in a 78 set in 1949, combining them with the Mount Holyoke set for this LP that same year.
The Mount Holyoke College Glee Club
The 110-voice Mount Holyoke College Glee Club makes an effective contrast to the quartet, both in size and in its more adventurous selections. The chorus makes pleasing sounds under the direction of long-time Mount Holyoke professor Ruth Douglass, although a snappier tempo might have been adopted in such joyful tunes as "In Dulci Jubilo." Large amateur choirs are difficult to maneuver, though.
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| The Mount Holyoke Glee Club in 1951 |
Mount Holyoke is historically a women's college; it is one of the schools in the Northeast US that are traditionally known as the "Seven Sisters." During the 1940s, the Glee Club traveled down from Massachusetts to Manhattan for a yearly Christmas concert. While the New York Times always announced the concert, I only found one review, from 1946, which was positive. The choir's selections on that date included music by Kodaly and Virgil Thomson's "Scenes from the Holy Infancy According to St. Matthew." None of that here, but the selections are nonetheless diverse and well presented.
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| Mount Holyoke 78 set |
US Columbia issued these 10 songs on six-sided 78 album in 1949, at the same time as this LP. The download includes a review of this LP from Billboard, a brief 1947 review of the Celebrity Quartette 78s in The Gramophone, and the New York Times review mentioned above.
Bonus: Brief Music for Two Pandemics
David F.'s latest compilation, "Brief Music for Two Pandemics," commemorates the two viral catastrophes that struck 100 years apart. It contains 10 songs that take their cue from the Stephen Foster song of 1854, "Hard Times Come Again No More," heard in two versions in this typically thoughtful playlist.
A link is in the comments section, along with the usual link for the LP of the day.
May everyone have a wonderful (and safe) holiday season!
