From the Back Room: Dottie Evans Sings the Hits

It was when I was preparing the post of the Ray Charles Singers' Cadence recordings that I had the idea of featuring one of the singers on the set. That person is Dorothy Evans - better known as Dottie Evans on seemingly innumerable Enoch Light budget records of the 1950s, which will be the focus of today's proceedings.

Dottie was a wonderfully versatile singer, able to tackle ballads, rhythm numbers and novelties with equal aplomb. She had excellent intonation and diction, and a lovely vocal quality. She's just fun to hear.

About Dottie Evans

The Murphy Sisters

Dottie was born Dorothy MacNicholl in Port Chester, NY in 1921 and died in Stamford, CT in 2000 as Dorothy Koczanski, the wife of the late Elmer Koczanski. She and her sisters Muriel and Marge toured as the Murphy Sisters (Murphy was her mother's maiden name) in the 1930s and 40s. They worked with the Carl Hoff and Vaughn Monroe bands, made at least one Soundie, and about 12 recordings for Apollo in 1947. The trio, a close-harmony outfit a la the Andrews Sisters, was versatile - ballads, oldies, even bizarre novelties like "Don't Eat Me." They were good, even if the material was not. I may devote a post to them.

Thereafter Dottie made her name as a studio singer, available for radio and television work, for jobs with such groups as the Ray Charles Singers, and for ads. In the 1960s, she made three LPs with folk singer Tom Glazer that were part of a six-album set known as "Ballads for the Age of Science." The songs by Hy Zaret and Lou Singer explained science concepts to children.

Sister Marge - also a skillful and appealing singer - made a quite a few budget records under the name Margie Murphy. She worked with Enoch Light's labels, as did Dottie, whose career we examine below.

The 1954-58 Budget Recordings

The Dottie Evans recordings in this set come primarily from the "18 Top Hits" label, which was one of Enoch Light's portfolio of budget marques, the best known of which may have been Waldorf Music Hall. 18 Tops Hits was exclusive to the Woolworth dime store chain. All this was before the impresario and former bandleader went upscale and started the Command label. Some of today's selections also appeared on the Bell label, which Light did not own, to my knowledge, so perhaps he leased some recordings to or from that operation.

Enoch Light the bandleader

Light's stock-in-trade was high quality budget cover recordings of the top hits of the day. He had a retinue of multi-talented studio singers - among them Artie Malvin, Loren Becker and of course Dottie and her sister Margie.

Most of Dottie's records have backing by Enoch Light and orchestra, although sometimes the bandleader is not named. Vincent Lopez and Jimmy Carroll also appear on a few records.

These records come primarily from Internet Archive 78s. Most of them cleaned up well; a few are a little scratchy.

The first two songs come from 1954 and were both Bob Merrill inspirations. We start with "Mambo Italiano," which Mitch Miller somehow got Rosemary Clooney to record. Rosie is great, but if anything Dottie is even more into the stage-Italian business that was popular in the postwar era. (Thanks, Louis Prima.)

Merrill also came up with "Make Yourself Comfortable," a success for Sarah Vaughan, and a record I bought when I was five. (I started young.) Dottie is just as welcoming as Sarah.

The marvelous "When You Wish Upon a Star" is by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington, written in 1940 for Disney's Pinocchio. I suspect that Evans' record was stimulated by a new TV show, Walt Disney's Disneyland, which began in 1954 and used the song as its theme.

"Hard to Get" is forgotten today, but the Jack Segal song was a smash for Gisele MacKenzie in 1955 - the biggest hit of her career. Gisele herself made budget records for Camden - an example, also from 1955, is here.

"Suddenly There's a Valley" is by Chuck Meyer and Biff Jones, and became a major hit for Gogi Grant on the Era label. It's one of the uplifting, quasi-religious songs that were popular at the time. Gogi's version can be found on my other blog.

Not well remembered - at least by me - is "You Are My Love." Jimmie Nabbie wrote it for Joni James, who apparently did well with it.

Another song that has not persisted in popularity is Kim Gannon's "Croce di Oro (Cross of Gold)." Patti Page had the hit with it in 1955-56.

"Cry Me a River" is an unusual song in that it was written by Arthur Hamilton for Ella Fitzgerald to sing in the film Pete Kelly's Blues, but not used. It was recorded a few years later by Julie London at the urging of Bobby Troup, who would later become London's husband. The song made her career. Evans' emotive version is accomplished as well.

The final song from 1955 is "When Christmas Comes to Our House," which is the only number that is original to Dottie. It was composed by Light and a writer named Kurzene, who is possibly the Iranian-American composer Massard Kur-Zhene. Enoch included it on his holiday compilations of the time. My friend Ernie has posted the complete LP a few times, most recently last year.

"Mr. Wonderful" is by Jerry Bock, George David Weiss and Larry Holofcener, written for the Broadway musical of that name starring Sammy Davis, Jr. (Olga James sang the number on stage.) Teddi King put out a popular version of the song in 1956 - her version is in this collection of her Victor singles.

One of the biggest hits of 1956 was "The Wayward Wind," which was Gogi Grant's other big success along with "Suddenly There's a Valley." In a post on my other blog about Gogi, I noted that, "'The Wayward Wind' is a second cousin lyrically to Lerner and Loewe's 'Wand'rin' Star' from the Paint Your Wagon score."

For a while there, songs by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans seemed to pop up in every other film that Hollywood released. One of their best items was "Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," which formed part of the plot in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. Doris Day sang it in the film, it became a very popular Columbia single and won an Oscar.

"Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now" has a peculiar history in that the Milton Kellems song was first recorded by country singer Roy Hogsed, who was better known for "Cocaine Blues." That first recording was in 1951. The song then went to Teresa Brewer. Finally the unknown juveniles Patience and Prudence set it down it in 1956, and it became a big seller. (I had it on 78.) Pat and Pru were the daughters of Mark McIntyre, former Sinatra pianist. For Dottie's recording, she is joined by Audrey Marsh, who also appeared on the Cadence Pajama Game LP.

The lovely "Graduation Day" is a Joe and Noel Sherman song that did nicely for the Four Freshman and the Rover Boys. I missed it the first time around and learned it from the Beach Boys' Freshmen-esque recording.

Jack Fulton and Lois Steele wrote "Ivory Tower," which hit for Cathy Carr, Gale Storm and Otis Williams (separately, not together).

The Ethel Merman vehicle Happy Hunting spawned "Mutual Admiration Society." For a while there, this Harold Karr-Matt Dubey was inescapable whenever two singers showed up on the same stage (assuming they didn't want to do "Me and My Shadow"). La Merman was joined by Virginia Gibson for the Broadway duet.

Moving to 1957, the song "Old Cape Cod" by Claire Rothrock, Milton Yakus and Allan Jeffrey put the Massachusetts peninsula on the map, as it were. Patti Page's voice was the vehicle.

Livingston and Evans return for "Tammy," the theme song for the Debbie Reynolds film Tammy and the Bachelor. Debbie sang it in the film and had a hit with it, although the version over the credits was by the Ames Brothers. You can find the soundtrack album for the film here.

Enoch Light also put out LP compilations in the late 50s, one of which contained the songs from My Fair Lady. Evans sang "I Could Have Danced All Night," which was a hit for Sylvia Syms and can be found in this Syms collection. Lerner and Loewe were the songwriters.

Light also issued a Show Spectacular album in 1958 with a various showtunes. From that collection we have Dottie singing "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" from Finian's Rainbow, the handiwork of Burton Lane and Yip Harburg.

Hope you enjoyed this tribute to a fine, albeit overlooked singer.

LINK

Charpentier from King's with Felicity Lott

This post is a tribute to the fine soprano Felicity Lott, who has died at age 79. It continues a series of choral recordings from the King's College Choir and Philip Ledger. These artists are heard in a 1977 recording of baroque music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

Dame Felicity Lott

The program is, in fact, somewhat unusual for Dame Felicity, who made her name via opera performances and song recitals. It does show her broad repertoire and artistic sympathies. You can read much more about her in a New York Times obituary (gift link).

In that article, critic Tim Page wrote of her:

Tall and self-possessed, with an air of wit and sophistication, Ms. Lott was ideal for parts like the introspective Marschallin in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, the Countess in his Capriccio and yet another wistful Countess, in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro.

While Ms. Lott’s voice was lucid and sensitive, what set her apart were her dramatic gifts and her refined yet warm bearing.

Today's program includes two Charpentier works: his Te Deum in D major, H.146, and Magnificat in D minor, H.74. They were composed while he was music director at the Church of Saint-Louis in Paris in the late 17th century.

An 18th century portrait of Marc-Antoine Charpentier,
which may or may not be accurate

"It is ceremonial music, for thanksgiving to God and perhaps almost equally to Louis XIV - after French victories, with the triumphal tones of trumpets and drums prominent," wrote Stanley Sadie in The Gramophone. "Not unlike Purcell's big court pieces, it mixes vigorous choruses with solo numbers and concertante movements (not unlike verse anthem style) for groups of soloists with the chorus."

Dame Felicity is heard in solo passages as well as ensembles with baritone Stephen Roberts, alto Charles Brett, tenor Ian Partridge and soprano Eiddwen Harry. The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields provides the instrumental backing, Thomas Trotter the organ continuo. The orchestra is heard most prominently in the two preludes. The prelude to the Te Deum is widely known in Europe for its use by Eurovision, principally for its Song Contest.

Recording Charpentier in the King's College Chapel

Several recent posts have addressed the coming of the period performance practice movement in the 1970s and 80s. This LP represents the middle ground of using modern instruments and small forces, in contrast to symphonic performances of Baroque music or the newly ascendant historically informed performances. Julian Rushton, who prepared the parts for this recording, explained his methods in the sleeve note:

This recording is made with modern instruments, and at modern pitch. Pitch in 17th-century France was about one tone below ours, but transposition raises more problems than it solves. Charpentier would probably have had a bass viol continuo rather than cello, and recorders rather than flutes; high tenors (haute-contres) were used rather than altos, and the soloists, presumably all male, would have formed part of the choir.

To demonstrate the difference in sound between this recording and period performances, here is what the Te Deum's prelude sounds like as performed by William Christie's Les Arts Florissants.

Philip Ledger

Putting the matter of "authenticity" aside, the King's performance is a good one. Stanley Sadie's verdict was as follows: "The performances here, cleverly recorded in King's College Chapel in such a way as to sound both clear in detail and spaciously reverberant, are altogether superior to those on the Pye Vanguard disc cited above [referring to a performance by the Pailliard Orchestra directed by Louis Martini]: in the solo singing (better in tone and much more sensitive to line), in the choral singing (clearer in articulation, brighter in tone and in every way more alive), in the instrumental playing (neater and more expressive) and in the general direction (Philip Ledger conducts rhythmically and with a keen feeling for the character of each number)."

Dame Felicity shines throughout, demonstrating the versatility that was just one of her artistic talents.

LINK

From the Back Room: 'A Bell for Adano'

John Hersey's A Bell for Adano was one of the most successful literary works with a World War II setting. The 1944 novel won a Pulitzer Prize, became a successful play and film, and had already been turned into a television drama by the time Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz decided to make it a small-screen musical in 1956. That was for the Ford Star Jubilee program.

The musical is the subject of today's post, with the songs taken from a bootleg of the original kinescope soundtrack - my thanks to George from New York for pointing me to the Internet Archive post.

Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz

It's a significant score because of the composers - Dietz and Schwartz together wrote "By Myself", "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan", "Dancing in the Dark", "If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You", "Alone Together", "Something to Remember You By", "You and the Night and the Music", "I See Your Face Before Me", "Haunted Heart" and "That's Entertainment!". They also wrote many familiar songs with others.

But before we get to the music, a few words about the story. Adano is a fictional town in Sicily modeled on Licata, a disembarkation point for troops moving into occupied Italy. US Army Maj. Victor Joppolo is in charge of the town and tries to take care of the residents' needs while also facilitating the movement of troops and supplies through the area.

One of the principal concerns of the townspeople is their church bell, which had been appropriated earlier in the war to make munitions. The bell ordered their lives, and just as importantly, it represented normality to them.

Missing church bells was an issue throughout Europe. An article in the New York Times (gift link) claims that 175,000 church bells were confiscated during the war, most of them never to return. An excerpt from that article:

In a diary entry in the summer of 1943, Anne Frank wrote that she had lost all sense of time. The bells in Amsterdam’s tallest church tower, the Westertoren, right next to her own attic hiding place in a canal house, had stopped ringing.

"For a week already we’ve all been a little confused about the time, ever since our dear and precious Westertoren bell has apparently been hauled away for factory use," she wrote on Aug. 10, 1943, "and we don’t know precisely what time it is, neither day or night."

At the end of the war, many of the leftover bells ended up in so-called "bell cemeteries."

Bell cemetery in Hamburg, 1948

In the television musical, the leads were Barry Sullivan as Maj. Joppolo and Anna Maria Alberghetti as Tina Tomassino, the daughter of the local head fisherman.

Barry Sullivan and Anna Maria Alberghetti

The musical had only five songs, if you count a reprise. The vocal star of the program is Edwin Steffe as Bellanco, one of the townspeople. It is he who carries the show's opening (and best) number, its title song. His impassioned explanation of the bell's importance, set to Schwartz' soaring melody, is memorable. Yes, there is a whiff of the stage-Italian in all the performance, but that was common back then - 1956 also was the year of The Most Happy Fella, the Frank Loesser musical. Steffe, who split his time between opera and musical theater, in fact appeared in a few Most Happy Fella productions through the years.

Edwin Steffe

Alberghetti, who was often on television during that time, had a pretty but small voice, which she displays in "Okay, Mister Major" and "I'm Part of You," both songs addressed to Barry Sullivan.

The score's only other number is "Fish" with indecipherable lyrics as presented by a children's chorus. The show was set in a fishing town; that's all I can tell you.

Finally there is a reprise of "A Bell for Adano."

The critics were not necessarily enthusiastic. Jack Gould of the New York Times: "Saturday night's production ... was left stranded between two theatrical forms. Mr. Schwartz and his collaborator, Howard Dietz, contributed four musical selections, none of very great melodic or lyric distinction, which were used as inserts within the play. The advantage of the musical form was not realized and the play was merely compromised and distorted by these intrusions."

I don't think Gould's grave pronouncements were warranted - although admittedly I haven't seen the show. The songs are good, and the title number is memorable. The 1950s practice of presenting original musicals was admirable. And to think that Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minow would castigate television as "a vast wasteland" only a few years later.

The sound from the kinescope is adequate - better than the previous entry in this series, Junior Miss. By the way, if you downloaded my original post of that other musical, I later improved the sound. You can find it here.

LINK to A Bell for Adano

From the Back Room: Saint-Saëns and d'Indy

The chamber music of Camille Saint-Saëns and Vincent d'Indy is hardly well-known; then again, when do we hear any of their music these days? The former's third symphony at times, the latter's Symphony on a French Mountain Air, perhaps.

So today's unusual combination of an octet and a septet, both featuring a trumpet are particularly welcome, especially in these performances by the Guilet String Quartet, trumpeter Harry Glantz, pianist Menahem Pressler, flutist Julius Baker and Claude Monteux and bassist Philip Sklar.

This 1954 recording was one of the readers' choices in my recent Buster's Back Room poll.

Saint-Saëns' composition is his Septet in E flat major, Op. 65, for Piano, Strings and Trumpet, dating from 1879-80. In it, the composer indulges his taste for his 17th century predecessors, melding it with the Romanticism of his own time.

Daniel Guilet and Menahem Pressler with Bernard Greenhouse

The performers are the Guilet Quartet, Pressler, Glantz and Sklar. The members of the quartet are unidentified except for its leader, Daniel Guilet. Generally he chose its members from the NBC Symphony, where he was concertmaster. In 1955, Guilet and Pressler would form the famed Beaux Arts Trio with cellist Bernard Greenhouse, who was not on this date.

This is an enjoyable performance that was a bit let down by the unsubtle sound that M-G-M provided. I have added a small amount of room tone so that it does not sound as though Harry Glantz is soloing five feet away from you.

Harry Glantz

Vincent d'Indy's Suite in Olden Style for Trumpet, Two Flutes and Strings, Op 24, is a similar work. The unsigned cover notes describe it as follows: "D'Indy's Suite in Olden Style undoubtedly was patterned after the Saint-Saëns Septet. Not only is it near in date to that latter work - it was composed in 1886, five years after the Septet was introduced - but it uses the trumpet in much the same fashion and is even formed in the archaic dance suite style of the Saint-Saëns effort.

Claude Monteux, Julius Baker

"Once again, the trumpet is used in both expected and unexpectedly lyric ways and d'Indy sets himself even more of a problem of balance by replacing Saint-Saëns' solo piano with two light-weighted flutes."

Despite the similarities in these compositions, d'Indy and Saint-Saëns were not all that close personally. The former was a pupil of César Franck, and an advocate for German music. When he became an official of the Société nationale de musique, he succeeded in admitting non-French music and musicians, which prompted Saint-Saëns to leave the organization.

Philip Sklar with an unvarnished bass

This is an unusual and enjoyable record, not least because it uses the bass of Philip Sklar to underpin the proceedings. Like Guilet, he was a member of the NBC Symphony. That ensemble was led by Arturo Toscanini, who retired in 1954, at about the time this recording was made.

LINK

From the Back Room: Early Ray Charles Singers

Most of the substantial Ray Charles Singers content on this blog has come from their stay on the M-G-M label during the 1950s. Shortly before that, they did some recording for Archie Bleyer and his Cadence outfit, a label that is mostly renowned for early Everly Brothers and Andy Williams records.

Today we have the following sets from Ray's Cadence period. First, there's music from The Pajama Game, the smash 1954 musical from Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. And we have 8 Top Hits, with cover versions of the same year's chart toppers.

The Both Sides Now LP discography suggests this was the first Cadence album.

The Pajama Game

The Pajama Game ran for almost three years on Broadway, but it is best remembered for the film edition with John Raitt and Doris Day as the principals. The other main roles were taken by Eddie Foy, Jr., Carol Haney and Reta Shaw, both in the film and in the original production. Raitt and Janis Paige were the leads on Broadway.

John Raitt and Doris Day play The Pajama Game

For Cadence, Stephen Douglass assumed John Raitt's role of Sid Sorokin - neat casting because Douglass would succeed Raitt in the role on Broadway. Douglass would go on to star in Adler and Ross' other show, Damn Yankees.

Stephen Douglass and Gwen Vernon in Damn Yankees

Babe Williams, the female lead, here is voiced by Dorothy Evans, better known on innumerable budget records as Dottie Evans. (A separate post devoted to Dottie is coming up.)

The Pajama Game concerns the Sleep-Tite Pajama Co. and its union, which is demanding a seven-and-a half cent hourly raise. Sid Sorokin (Douglass) is the new superintendent of the factory; Babe Williams (Evans) the head of the union grievance committee. Love and comic labor troubles ensue.

The Evans and/or Douglass songs are:

"A New Town Is a Blue Town" - Douglass

"I'm Not at All in Love" - Evans and the Ray Charles Singers

"Hey There" - Douglass (it's a duet between Sid and his dictaphone voice; see above)

"Once-a-Year Day" - Douglas, Evans and the Singers

"Small Talk" - Douglas and Evans

"There Once Was a Man" - Douglas and Evans

John Raitt has said that "A New Town Is a Blue Town" and "There Once Was a Man" were ghostwritten by Frank Loesser.

Ray Charles, Dottie Evans

For "Seven-and-a-Half Cents" Evans is joined by Ray Charles, in the role of Prez (Stanley Prager on Broadway), and by the ensemble. Charles is otherwise heard in "Her Is," where he is joined by Audrey Marsh as Gladys (Carol Haney on stage and in the film).

Arthur (Artie) Malvin takes the Eddie Foy, Jr. role of Hines, the "time-study man." His songs are "Think of the Time I Save" and "I'll Never Be Jealous Again," here with Dossie Hollingsworth (Reta Shaw).

Artie Malvin, Audrey Marsh

Malvin was associated with Charles for many years, and had his own group, the Crew Chiefs, an outgrowth of Glenn Miller's AAF band. He made a huge number of budget records.

Audrey Marsh had been a radio vocalist in the 1930s and thereafter. She was the mother of composer-performer Meredith Monk.

One of the hits of the show, "Steam Heat," is performed by Charles, Malvin and Evans. It was a song and dance feature for Carol Haney and ensemble on Broadway and in the movie, with choreography by Bob Fosse.

Another hit, "Hernando's Hideaway," is sung by the Archie Bleyer Chorus with Maria Alba credited with the overly prominent castanet playing. Actually, this selection was recorded and issued as a single before the other numbers. It did well, so the LP followed.

In general, the entire presentation is nicely done, and in good sound.

Note that I prepared this post from a later, full LP Cadence release of The Pajama Game that had more selections than on the cover depicted at top of the post. 

8 Top Hits

8 Top Hits was a title used by Bleyer and then other labels, including Enoch Light with Waldorf. Archie gave himself top billing here, with the Ray Charles Singers, Dottie Evans, Artie Malvin and the others less prominent. Oh well, it was his label.

I'll provide a few words about each of the songs, the original versions, and who performs them here. I remember all these songs even though I was five years old at the time (1954), but then a few of them are well known even today.

All the numbers except "Skokiaan" feature the Ray Charles Singers, with the soloists as indicated.

"The Little Shoemaker" is a novelty based on the French song, "Le petit cordonnier" by Rudi Revil. The story is somewhat reminiscent of a Hans Christian Andersen tale. The US hits were by the Gaylords and Eddie Fisher. In the UK, it was the first chart success for Petula Clark.

Dottie Evans is the soloist on "If I Give Me Heart to You." The most popular versions were by Doris Day and Denise Lor. Jimmy Brewster (a pen name for Decca's Milt Gabler), Jimmie Crane and Al Jacobs wrote the song.

The instrumental "Skokiaan" has a complicated background. It was composed by Zimbabwean musician August Musarurwa, with the title a tribute to a potent home brew thereabouts. The first version released in the US was by Musarurwa and the Bulawayo Sweet Rhythm Band. The most successful cover was probably Ralph Marterie's.

"I Need You Now," written by Jimmie Crane and Al Jacobs, was a chart-topper for Eddie Fisher. Artie Malvin is the soloist on 8 Top Hits.

Versatile Artie did quite a few rock 'n' roll numbers for budget labels. One of the first was the crossover hit "Sh-Boom," written and recorded by the Chords. The Crew-Cuts had a popular cover version.

Dottie Evans gives us a nice treatment of Stuart Hamblen's "This Ole House," which was a massive success for Rosemary Clooney. You can hear the versions of Clooney and Hamblen in this post devoted to Thurl Ravenscroft, who handled the bass refrain of "Ain't a-gonna need this house no longer / Ain't a-gonna need this house no more." Percy Dove does those lines here. One odd note: Dottie's sister Margie Murphy also recorded the song, for one of Enoch Light's budget labels.

Percy Dove, Jerry Duane

Jerry Duane is the whistler in this rendition of "The High and the Mighty," Dimitri Tiomkin's memorable film theme. There are several other versions of the tune available on this blog via a celebration of Tiomkin's pop hits.

Mambo was big enough in the US back then that several songs that tried to cash in on the dance craze. "Papa Loves Mambo" was perhaps the biggest, with Perry Como sounding laid back as always. Here, Artie Malvin does the vocal gyrations. Stuart Foster's competing budget disc can be found here.

It adds up to a nice selection of the largely genteel chart toppers of 1954.

LINK

Evensong for Ascension Day from King's

This is a follow-up to a recent post containing music for Holy Week from King's College, Cambridge. That LP was from 1977; today we have a 1978 recording of Choral Evensong for Ascension Day. Again, the King's Choir is conducted by Philip Ledger, who directed the ensemble from 1974-82.

Philip Ledger

As its name implies, "evensong" is a sung service taking place near evening. It is an Anglican tradition; one of its most famous exponents is the King's Choir.

The service is centered on peace and personal reflection. Having attended a King's Choral Evensong, I can attest that it is a moving experience.

In his notes to this LP, the then Dean of King's, the Rev. Michael Till, writes that "The service is essentially different from a missionary service, which is designed to create belief. Instead, it represents the response of the believer to a God who has already made Himself known." This is particularly meaningful on Ascension Day, which signifies Christ's ascension into heaven, forty days after his Easter resurrection. Ascension Day this year is Thursday, May 15 (the following Sunday in some parishes).

Rev. Till: "The festivals of the Christian year follow the pattern of the life of Christ, and make up a year-long reflection on the different aspects of that interchange between the human and the divine which ... forms the centre of the service itself."

The King's Choir with director Stephen Cleobury, who succeeded Ledger

As with the music for Holy Week, the selections range from the Renaissance and Baroque (William Byrd, William Smith of Durham, J.S. Bach, Jeremiah Clarke) to the 19th century (Eugène Gigout, Henry George Ley, Joseph Barnby) to the 20th century (Edmund Rubbra).

Gordon Reynolds wrote in The Gramophone, "Philip Ledger's approach to the famous acoustic is not to beguile it with soft-centred tone, melting at the edges, but to calculate the duration of notes so that the building has its part to play in rounding them off. This produces thrilling sound, wonderfully clear, in the unaccompanied counterpoint. In the Rubbra Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, with the added challenge of the organ, the effect is rich and noble.

"Musically a joy, and historically important as a sample of the current modus operandi at King's."

Reynolds did complain - rightfully so - that the spoken portions of the service were nearly inaudible. I have raised the level somewhat while keeping it relatively subdued, which would be the case if you were present in the huge "chapel" of King's.

Thomas Trotter

As with the Holy Week program, the excellent organist is Thomas Trotter.

LINK

From the Back Room: the Music of Trevor Duncan

I suspect the face above will be unfamiliar to even people who are familiar with his name or music. He is Trevor Duncan, who made his mark as a composer of library music.

Let me explain a little more: "library music" refers to a catalogue of recordings that can be licensed and then used at will by motion picture, television, advertising and video producers, without incurring further usage charges.

Duncan was one of the masters of the genre, managing to write memorable cues that were used extensively, particularly in England, where he lived.

In a field known for anonymity, he made a name for himself - even though it was a name different from the one he was given upon birth: Leonard Trebilco. That was in 1924. Leonard/Trevor lived until 2005.

Today we will explore 31 different cues that he wrote mainly in the 1950s and 1960s, almost all taken from the original library 78s, which I found on Internet Archive.

Before we do, a general comment about his music. Duncan was in effect a mimic, but a most talented one. He did not invent genres; he capitalized on them, producing catchy themes that would sound somehow familiar, while remaining his own. He wrote many types of music - easy listening and classical cues; music for horror and crime sagas. Also, he was a talented orchestrator.

His first big success is an example. It is "High Heels" (a midcentury title if ever I heard one), a memorable number that seems somehow familiar. That's because it was modeled on David Rose's "Holiday for Strings" - a pizzicato chorus followed by a bridge played with bows. Trevor was not the first to do follow Rose's lead, but his effort is among the best. Duncan wrote the piece in 1949 when he was a BBC engineer, a job he kept for another few years.

From 1954 we have a set of cues called "Children in the Park," which includes "Dancing for Joy," "At the Pool," "Hide and Seek" and "Roundabouts and Swings." These embody youthful exuberance, and are designed to be used as underscoring to create a mood.

"Meadow Mist" from the same year is the first of several pastoral pieces that convey calm and contentedness. It's a lovely work.

Much different is the group of cues called "Grip of the Law," from 1956. Inspired by film noir, these are of course for use in crime dramas. The first cue, "Opening," would underscore titles; the second is "Closing." Then there are three "Penultimate" cues for possible use near the end of the drama. These play on screenplay tropes: one is "Dramatic Penultimate," the next "Light Penultimate" (for byplay between the hero and sidekick) and the third "Romantic Penultimate" (for the hero and his or her love interest). Finally we have "Background" with ominous music, snare drum and other effects. 

Tor Johnson and Vampira in the grip of something, if not the law

Some of these may sound familiar to you. "Grip of the Law" is perhaps best known for its use in Ed Wood's magnum opus, Plan 9 from Outer Space. But "Opening" reminds me of a different piece - Nelson Riddle's theme for The Untouchables television show.

"St. Boniface Down" is a second pastoral piece - its opening is strongly reminiscent of Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 5. Regardless, it is very beautiful.

The "Grand March (from the Visionaries)," also from 1957 perhaps harkens back to the march that Arthur Bliss wrote for the 1937 film Things to Come. although it is not a clone.

Ad for The Scarf mentioning the theme music

"The Girl from Corsica" from 1958 is one of Duncan's most famed and evocative pieces. It was used as the theme music for BBC Television's serial of Francis Durbridge's novel The Scarf. Ron Goodwin recorded a popular commercial version of the piece.

"Wine Festival" is a memorable theme with a distinctly Italian feel.

Bill Simpson as Dr. Finlay

Another well known cue is the "March from The Little Suite," which was employed as the theme for the BBC's program Dr. Finlay's Casebook. The other items from the suite - "Jogtrot" and "Folk Tune" - were used in that series as well. IA was missing the first record from the set, which contained the March; the version in this set comes from a commercial recording by Sir Vivian Dunn and the Orchestra of the Light Music Society.

Also from 1959 is the "Gt. Britain Suite," with cues for the four countries - England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with music designed to be characteristic. The English selection, for example, opens with a fanfare followed by a Waltonian march. Each country has such an opening theme, followed by a brief reprise for use at the end of a sequence.

"Little Debbie" is another piece that is intended to capture carefree youth. "Valse Mignonette" is similar in intent, although here the child is French.

From 1964 we have "Sixpenny Ride," which again captures activity and high spirits. The title presumably refers to an amusement park.

The final selection is 1967's "Serenade (from the Maestro Variations)." This is similar to a famous Serenade from a Hoffstetter string quartet, the one formerly attributed to Haydn. 

These items are all in well recorded mono, except for the "March from The Little Suite," which is from 1970 and is in stereo. There are quite a few (31) cues here, but many of them are short; the complete playing time is about an hour.

LINK

From the Back Room: Music by Cowell and Ward

The 20th century American composers Henry Cowell and Robert Ward have both appeared here before; in this post we have the Symphony No. 7 from the former and two short orchestral works from the latter.

This is the first post in the second tranche of music from Buster's Back Room: projects rescued by popular acclaim from my own procrastination.

Cowell and Ward were one of the clear winners in the plebiscite; I had no idea folks were still interested in these unfashionable but rewarding composers.

Henry Cowell

For Cowell (1897-1965), the seventh symphony is one of the finest works of his "mature" period, where he put his piano-busting tone clusters aside for more euphonious material.

In his High Fidelity review, Alfred Frankenstein put Cowell's evolution into context: "As Sidney Cowell observes in her jacket notes, the work 'marks the absorption into Cowell's modal style (conspicuous since 1941) of the dissonant polyphonic and harmonic techniques that first established his reputation.' Translated into more general terms, this means that the symphony exhibits a bolder, more monumental, and more personal exploration of folkloric material than was common in Cowell's earlier music; it carries on where the Third Symphony of Ives leaves off and continues the Ives tradition in the noblest vein."

Robert Ward

From Robert Ward (1917-2013), we have his Jubilation Overture and an Adagio and Allegro for Orchestra. Alfred Frankenstein commented, "The solid, horn-colored, somewhat Harris-like sonorities of Robert Ward on the other side of the record are reproduced more successfully than Cowell's open polyphony. Both pieces are very big and broad in style; they convey the epic note without pose or forcing, and they should go far toward increasing interest in the work of this extremely able composer."

Both works were written during World War II, while Ward was in the Army. The Adagio and Allegro are from 1944, and Jubilation - presumably titled in celebration of war's end - was written the following year.

William Strickland

The reviewers were not particularly happy with the performances of the Vienna Symphony under conductor William Strickland (1914-91). Alfred Frankenstein had this to say: "The thinness and lack of clarity in the sound may be due as much to the performance as to the registration; at times one feels as if Strickland were struggling with a half-rehearsed ensemble containing not more than a dozen strings."

Actually, to a degree the skinny sound is an artifact of the recording, although the Vienna Symphony does not have the tonal allure of the same city's Philharmonic. This quality of performance and recording was the norm from the continental ensembles who recorded for such labels as the American Recording Society at the time. This particular release was on the M-G-M label, which also was committed to contemporary American music. The recording was subsidized by the American Composers Alliance.

Strickland, too, was devoted to promoting American music. He was one of the founders of the Nashville Symphony, and was its conductor until 1951.

I believe these are the only recordings of the Cowell symphony and Ward's Adagio and Allegro. There is a later recording of the latter's Jubilation.

For anyone interested in these composers, Cowell's Symphony No. 4 can be found here; Ward's Symphony No. 1 is here and his Symphony No. 3 is here.

LINK

Miklos Rózsa's 'El Cid'

There has been very little soundtrack activity around here lately, so a recent request allows me to fill that gap and also indulge my taste for promo records.

The main attraction is Miklos Rózsa's 1961 score for the medieval epic El Cid, the tale of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar ("El Cid," i.e., the Master).

Sophia Loren and Charlton Heston

The film starred the not-very-Spanish Charlton Heston and the very Italian Sophia Loren, along with the usual cast of thousands, seen marauding on the cover above.

Cinemascope action (actually "Super Technirama") was just the thing for the Hungarian emigre Rózsa, who had quite a successful career scoring epics and film noir in particular. He could wrote stirring themes and love music of equal quality and does so in this film.

Heston at large

The real story of El Cid is a complicated one that isn't all that germane to the film music. If you want to be confused by his various wars and his allegiances with both Christian and Muslim rulers alike, Wiki has just the article for you. As for the film, I haven't seen it in more than 50 years, so I can't be of much help. The Wiki article on El Cid the film spells the plot out in detail. It notes in passing that producer Samuel Bronston, who had set up shop in Spain, came up with the idea of making the film to curry favor with Francisco Franco, who saw himself as the reincarnation of El Cid.

Miklos Rózsa in the studio

I can tell you that the music is splendid; one of Rózsa's most famous and accomplished scores. For this record - and I believe for the complete soundtrack - he conducts the Graunke Orchestra of Munich, which specialized in recording soundtracks in the 1960s.

Wiki also provides the wonderful anecdote that Bronston first hired Mario Nascimbene to write the music, but wanted him to base it on Massenet's opera Le Cid, which the Nascimbene refused to do. Enter Rózsa, who eventually had his own problems with the producer. I don't hear any Massenet in the score, but then of the composer's 30 operas I've only heard Werther.

The result is a sweeping film epic (I'm told) and a powerful and varied score, a credit to both the director (Anthony Mann) and composer.

By the way, the El Cid LP came in a gatefold cover; the download includes complete scans, as always.

Finally, let me mention that the record would win no prizes for its sound, which was close and harsh, probably designed for maximum bombast on the huge stereo consoles then in vogue. I've adjusted the sonics to be more pleasing to today's listeners (or at least me).

Bonus: Promo Spots

Somewhere along the line I acquired a recording of promo spots for El Cid, which I've included as a bonus. These are 10 to 60 second radio ads that tout the rave reviews for the film (unsurprisingly). They are quite unexciting, but I love this sort of thing and I suspect some of you may as well. At least I tell myself that.

LINK to soundtrack and promo spots

More Rózsa

To go along with the El Cid score, I've revisited two noted Rózsa scores from the early days of the blog. The links below take you to the original posts.

Quo Vadis. The "story of the love of a victorious Roman warrior for a Christian slave girl," says the liner notes for this 1951 epic with Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr (not my idea of a slave girl). This falls squarely in the epic realm, and Rózsa was entrusted with the music, which he did well. This 10-incher and the following record were both conducted by the composer.

The Red House. IMDb tells us, "An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods." It's a horror film from 1947, just the sort of thing for Rózsa to break out the theremin he had previously used for Spellbound and Lost Weekend. His recording first appeared on this EP.