Christmas In July 2017 Day 13
Lucky number 13! I must be doing something right. Let's jump right in, feet first. first time!
1. The Sound Of Christmas by 101 Strings, Recorded Under The Direction Of D.L. Miller, a rerun around here, but this time pulled from the album Themes And Songs Of American Holidays (Alshire S-5056, Stereo, 1967). Pretty sure when I shared this with you last time, it was from a promo version sent to radio stations with a slightly different track list. This track is still the same, though, and pretty good.
2. Toy Symphony, Hob. II, No. 27, a bit of classical goodness by Württemberg Chamber Orchestra, Heilbronn-Jörg Faerber, Conductor, from the LP Humour In Music-18th Century Style (Turnabout (Vox) TV 34134S, Stereo, 1967). I don't know about the humour bit, but it's nice music.
3. Winter Time by Trio Shmeed-Orchestra Conducted By Don Costa, an excellent new find this year, and the second song I've shared with you from their LP Trio Schmeed (ABC-Paramount ABC-103, Mono, 1955). There's some other nice stuff on this LP, probably one of the ones I'll go back and record when I have some free time and it's not July.
4. Les Patineurs-Waltz, OP. 183 performed by Robert Irving, Conducting Sinfonia Of London, and lifted from the LP Philharmonic Pops (Capitol SG 7178, Stereo, 1958). If you don't recognize the title, it's The Skater's Waltz in French, I believe. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
5. Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers (From "Chauve Souris") by Richard Hayman And His Harmonica Orchestra from his stereo spectacular Harmonica Holiday (Mercury PPS 6005, Stereo, 1961). From another set of stereo show-off discs, this time the series put out on Mercury.
6. Let There Be Peace On Earth (Let It Begin With Me) by The Norman Luboff Choir from This Is Norman Luboff! (RCA Victor LSP-2342, Mono, 1961). One of those albums I've seen a thousand times but never looked at the track list. Monday I picked it up and there it was. Now if I'd only done that with a nice clean stereo copy...
7. Ding Dong Merrily On High by The Dixie High School Madrigal Singers from The Dixie H.S. Concert Choir Of 1966-1967 (Dixie High School, Dayton, OH, 19165/19166, Mono, 1967). I really haven't shared out very many of these home-baked high school musicals this year. I have them in the pile, I've just been more interested in the other stuff I have to share. But when I get to them, you'll know it!
8. Moonlight In Vermont by Brook Benton from Songs I Love To Sing (Mercury SR 60602, Stereo, 1960). Not sure about the Christmas relevance of this song, but I've seen it pop up on plenty of winter-themed albums. I guess there are a couple lines in there that could be winter...
9. Dream Of A Doll by Al Bollington, another track from his LP Organ Hues In Hi-Fi (Dot DLP 3110, Mono, 1958). Not sure how I reached the point where any song with the word 'Doll' in the title is a possible Christmas song, but here we are.
And here we are at the end of a particularly long list of songs tonight. Hope there's something in there that you find enjoyable. Leave me a note and let me know what your favorite is.
Zippyshare
The toy Symphony has long been attributed to either Joseph or Michael Haydn or Leopold Mozart...but it's authorship is actually a monk named Edmund Angerer about 20 years prior... Most are also set in G major while Angerer sets his in C... It's a weird history for such a great piece of music...
ReplyDeleteI feel humbled by the opportunity to comment in succession to Santa himself!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite, per your request, is the great Brook Benton. Happy to have this one!
the trio shmeed gets my vote because anyone named shmeed needs all the votes he can get. apart from that, i have a fondness for swiss yodel music (not that this was very swiss once don costa got through with it). i was working in bern in the early 1980s and a large group of older male yodellers used to perform there at official functions. bern is the capital of switzerland and regularly held international conferences at which these guys provided local color… alpine hats, lederhosen, and yodel music. after their gigs, they used to meet at a pub around the corner and sit and drink and smoke pipes and sing for themselves. that was something. since then, i’ve been a sucker for anyone who yodels, ululates, or even clears their throat on key. so i thought this was good.
ReplyDeletehowever, the stereo version is much better.
A little more research and you'll find out that Leopold Mozart may have been the first copyist for this piece... This could have led to at least six of his other pieces being of a dubious nature to boot...
ReplyDeleteCould Leopold Mozart have been a living P.D.Q. Bach...but with a much higher musical sense???