The First Recordings of Paul Creston's Music

The American composer Paul Creston is not entirely neglected - his Second Symphony has been recorded several times - but he also is not a household name even in musical domiciles. This present LP, the first of his music, is a worthy testimonial to his impressive skills.

Creston (1906-85), who was almost entirely self-taught and did not become a full-time composer until 1932, somehow was able to gain notice in a relatively short time. An early advocate was fellow composer Henry Cowell. Soon his music was being programmed by the biggest batons of the day - Toscanini, Ormandy, Stokowski - as well as the lesser known Howard Mitchell, music director of Washington, D.C.'s National Symphony Orchestra.

Paul Creston

This Westminster LP, presented by request, is one of the relatively few from Mitchell's two decades at the National Symphony's helm. A cellist, Mitchell rose from the orchestra's ranks to succeed Hans Kindler as the chief conductor in 1949. He had a reputation as more of a fund-raiser and socialite than as a great conductor - the download includes a photo of him yucking it up with Dwight D. Eisenhower - but this particular record is quite well done.

Howard Mitchell

Mitchell was strongly committed to American music in general and Creston's music in particular. Not only was he the first to record Creston, in 1956 Mitchell and the National Symphony were to commission the composer's fifth symphony.

Creston's Symphony No. 2 dates from 1944 and the third symphony from 1950. Both are strong, characteristic works that alternate lyrical passages that may bring to mind Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2, with more forceful music which betrays a love for the early Stravinsky. The third symphony bears the title Three Mysteries, with the movements named "The Nativity," "The Crucifixion" and "The Resurrection." The music is not programmatic, however. For whatever reason, the title is mentioned nowhere on the record.

The recordings, made in the Holton-Arms School Auditorium in Washington, date from several days in December 1953, when the orchestra also recorded music by Copland, Shostakovich and Brahms (the violin concerto with Julian Olevsky). Westminster did not engage Mitchell again, but he was able to tape two albums for RCA Victor in 1957 - more Shostakovich and works by Morton Gould. In 1960 he backed Jaime Laredo in two concertos and embarked on a series of educational records, also for RCA.

I have had this particular record for at least 40 years. I remember buying it in an extremely hot antique store, and being excited to get it. Back then, very few records of 20th century American music were available. My excitement turned to disappointment, however, when I played the disc. It was riddled with pops and thumps that neither Creston nor Mitchell intended. These days most of the superfluous noise can be eradicated via software, with the remainder done by hand. As a result, Westminster's very good sonics now come through unimpaired.

The download includes a PDF of the August 1956 edition of High Fidelity magazine, which contains an article on LP recordings of American music, including Creston.

Pavane for Two Dead Airlines

I enjoy at least some promotional LPs, and here are two good ones, both honoring now-defunct airlines.

Above we have "The Name of the Game Is Go," issued to celebrate a new advertising campaign, circa 1970, for Pan Am, at the time the largest international airline serving the U.S. The audience was likely travel agents, among others.

Below is a 1965 LP, "Images in Flight," which took the unusual step of having three conservative American composers gussy up the Eastern Airlines theme music into an aural travelogue depicting some of the destinations Eastern served. The cover notes imply that the record was a giveaway for Eastern employees, but I have seen the LP many times over the years, so I suspect its circulation was wider.

Both albums come from a time when air travel was rather more glamorous than it is nowadays. My own flying experience spans the period from when these records were issued until today, and I can tell you the only things I don't miss from those earlier days are cigarette smoke in the cabin and the less sophisticated weather forecasts of the time, which often led to bumpy if not dangerous flights.

But rather than going off into a reverie about the old days, let's look at each of the albums in turn.

Pan Am

The Pan Am record is listed online as coming from 1969, but since it references the Boeing 747, which Pan Am did not fly until 1970, I believe it is from a little later. The first side is devoted to several iterations of "Name of the Game is Go" advertising spots, which feature the catchy theme developed for the campaign and various versions of the clever lyrics. Each spot ends with a segue into the older "Pan Am Makes the Going Great" tagline music.

As usual with advertising jingles, the composer and copywriter for the "Name of the Game" spots are anonymous. However, "Goin's Great" music is also present in two recordings made of the music as adapted into song form, as performed by Sammy Davis, Jr. and Steve Allen circa 1969. The credits ascribe the music to Stanley Applebaum and lyrics to Sammy Cahn. Allen helpfully quotes "Shortnin' Bread" in his piano solo, suggesting where Applebaum may have found inspiration.

Gatefold - click to enlarge

The album's covers and gatefold display the ad campaign's print element. The artwork is by Henry "Hank" Syverson, a cartoonist with a very distinct style who worked for magazines and advertisements.

The music, arrangements, lyrics and artwork are all redolent of the time, and were largely aimed at the tired businessman looking to get away from it all. As was the custom then, women were mainly stereotyped as housewives.

Note (October 2024): this LP has now been remastered.

LINK to The Name of the Game Is Go

Eastern Airlines

The Eastern LP is the result of a collaboration between the airline and Andre Kostelanetz, a high-toned mood music maestro and the conductor of the New York Philharmonic's pops concerts. Kostelanetz then commissioned three reputable composers - Alan Hovhaness, Paul Creston and Henry Cowell - to produce a suite, "Images in Flight," making use of the airline's theme music. As with the Pan Am music, the composer of the Eastern theme is anonymous.

The result, as recorded by the New Yorkers in 1965, is surprisingly palatable in its easy-going way. The album is filled out by an instrumental version of the Eastern theme music, called "Bermuda Concerto" for some reason, as arranged by Clay Wernick (I believe) and performed by studio pianist Dick Hyman and the Kostelanetz ensemble. The balance of the LP consists of reissued Kostelanetz sides mainly on the travel theme.

The sound on these records is generally above average for promotional items, which often have dim sonics. The "Images in Flight" suite sounds quite good.

Note (October 2024): this LP has now been remastered.

LINK to Images in Flight

Deems Taylor and Paul Creston

Recently I asked the readers of this blog if any of a selection of my half-finished transfers would be on interest. I should have asked if any of them were not of interest, because all of them received votes, most of them several.

But the exercise was not without merit - it elicited far more comments than anything else I have ever published here! So I am going to go ahead and share various items as I finish them off. I started off this AM with a post on my other blog of two EPs by a fairly obscure vocalist, Bob Carroll. I had thought that only I would remember him, but no, a few of you did ask for his work.

Taylor in 1931

I suspected that the present post would be more desirable, and sure enough, many of you requested it. This 10-inch LP is one of the American Recording Society series from the early 1950s, combining highly accessible works by contemporary composers Deems Taylor and Paul Creston.

If Taylor's name lives on today, it may be primarily as the narrator of Disney's Fantasia. But he was a formidable presence on the American music scene for several decades, as critic, composer and broadcaster.

"The Portrait of a Lady" is an attractive suite from 1925 that veers between Delius and light music. Taylor, in his capacity as the representative of the New York World, reviewed the premiere himself, commenting, "The audience, probably composed of the composer's relatives, greeted the piece with what seemed to us highly disproportionate cordiality."

Creston

Paul Creston's Partita is from 1937, a relatively early work. Creston was a conservative like Taylor, although his music is less romantic than that of Taylor.

These performances by an anonymous orchestra led by Walter Hendl are better than some of the ARS recordings heard here. Michael Gray's discography claims that the orchestra is actually the Vienna Symphony, and dates the recording to sessions in June 1952. The sound is very good.

Digression No. 23

It was quite a thrill to receive a note from Sue Raney and her husband Carmen Falzone following my posting of her uncollected singles recently. This was through the intercession of Bill Reed, who knows Sue and had taken Sue a CD of the singles. She responded:

"I can’t begin to express my gratitude for the compilation of the singles I made so long ago. It was such fun to listen to them again. We sure tried to get a hit record in those days (ha). 'Biology' was the only one that made it to the Billboard chart at about 50 something (I think). [Note from Buster - that's the only Capitol single I don't have, ironically.] What a special person you are to have taken the time to do all that. You made me so happy, and I thank you so very much for your love and support – the notes you wrote are also quite a keepsake for me."

Speaking of Bill (maestro of the People vs. Dr. Chilledair), he reminds me that in my recent Carole Simpson post, I really should have mentioned that Carole has a 2008 release called "Live" and Otherwise, available here.

Finally - and completely unrelated to the previous discussion - I came across a most interesting radio show on the web this weekend, and thought I would share my refurbishment of the sound. This comes from the Sunday Gramophone feature of a site called Crooks and Liars, which apparently does not refer to the musicians or proprietors but to the site's main preoccupation, politicians. Sunday Gramophone has exceptionally interesting material, unfortunately presented in exceptionally low bit-rate mp3s. Yesterday's offering was from an NBC program of July 1, 1943 by the NBC Orchestra, conducted by Joseph Stopak. This was in a late-night sustaining series called Music of the New World, devoted to all types of music from the Americas - a wartime effort designed to promote inter-American harmony.

This particular program was devoted to US composers, and included less-often heard works by Sowerby (Comes Autumn Time) and Creston (Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, with Artur Balsam), along with pieces by Griffes and Carpenter.

I have rebalanced the sound, but the compression artifacts from the low bit-rate file are of course still audible (but not too distracting, I hope). It is presented in FLAC format to avoid additional compression effects. The program also is now tracked. The link is below.

LINK