Thursday, July 11, 2019

Christmas In July 2019-Part 25

Once again, welcome back.  I hope you're all enjoying the Christmas songs this year, whether you're listening to them now or squirreling them away from Christmas listening. Don't forget about them though.  Now, on with the show!

1. Children From New York Public School 24 With Guitar Accompaniment-Why Not Make It All The Time? from Songs For All Year Long (Folkways/Scholastic SC7626, Mono, 1965). Cute song, shame these kids can't sing.

2. Howard Hanson Conducting The Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra-The Winter's Past-Rhapsody For Oboe And Strings from Americana For Solo Winds And String Orchestra (American Music Festival Series Volume 4) (Mercury MG 40003, Mono, 1953).  Some interesting stuff from an interesting series on Mercury.  I always have to check records that I've not seen before, hoping to find a usable track.

3. Ferrante And Teicher With The Ferrante And Teicher Orchestra Conducted By Nick Perito-Ave Maria from Part Two-The Ferrante And Teicher Concert (United Artists UAS 6475, Stereo, 1966).  A live version for a change.

4. Tomita-Footprints In The Snow (Preludes, Book I, No. 6) from Snowflakes Are Dancing-The Newest Sound Of Debussy (RCA Red Seal ARL1-0488, Stereo, 1974).  Not sure if I like this track as much as the other one I shared with you earlier.  This one is very sparse, even ambient.  Which isn't a bad thing, but it borders on sleepy sometimes.

5. Roberta Sherwood With The Malcolm Dodds Singers And Orchestra-Go Tell It On The Mountain from Gospel Goes Pop (aka Gone Gospel) (ABC-Paramount ABCS-464, Stereo, 1963).  A mono version of this track was one of the very first songs I recorded for this year's celebration.  Then the next day I found a stereo version in the pile and had to do it all over again.  Oddly enough, the stereo and mono versions had different titles, but I think that's just dependent on when exactly the LP was pressed.

6. Harry Arnold  And The Strings Of The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra-Moonlight In Vermont from The Moon And The Stars (Mercury SR 60088, Stereo, 1959).  Not sure how Swedish radio stars ended up recording an album for Mercury, but here's the evidence.  Anything can happen, I suppose. Sorry about the noise in this one.  The record goes 'round and around.

7. Gerald Eskelin And The L.A. Jazz Choir-A Rhapsody Of Christmas from Hal Leonard Presents A Choral Spectrum (Youth Edition) (Hal Leonard Publishing HLP-11, Stereo, 1984).  Your demo track in this share.

8. Josef Locke With Chorus & Orchestra And Organ Conducted By Robert Carruthers-Silent Night, Holy Night from A Tear, A Kiss, A Smile-The Best Of Josef Locke Volume 3 (EMI (UK) GO 2042, Stereo, 1992). A collection of much older recordings in fake stereo, I believe.  I remember finding this in a Salvation Army store in Englewood, Florida, and of course getting a little excited.  I think I found the other volumes had Christmas tracks on them too. And are those different words?  Maybe an unfamiliar verse?

9. The 110 Strings Orchestra-The Skaters' Waltz from Waltz Favorites (Mayfair 9657S Yellow Vinyl, Stereo).  A frequent share around here because I can't pass up the colored vinyl.

10. First United Methodist Church Harp Duet-Star Of The East from 1972 Festival Program (Mark MC-5019, Stereo, 1972).  A harp duet?  Yes, please!

And on that note, we conclude tonight's programming. Thanks for playing along.  Here's the download link.  See you tomorrow.

6 comments:

  1. i guess if you have two harpists in your congregation, you stick them on the record regardless of whether they’re any good. they sound like something you’d hear in the middle of a grade school recital. actually, some of these demos are pretty good to my ears. that brass band arrangement of the hallelujah chorus was nice. even today’s rhapsody of christmas from the l.a. jazz choir was pretty snappy. and these deliberately fade out because they’re only samples meant to whet the interest of potential buyers of the sheet music, right? i can see that, i guess. maybe that’s what schubert was doing long ago. “oh, so you like the first movement and yes, the second one, too. well, if you want to hear the rest, you buy the sheet music for your orchestra and we’ll talk about it.” i’m not saying it happened that way. but it’s a formidable marketing tool.

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  2. Yes, the demo records are just samples meant to whet your appetite to spend $10 on the sheet music. I assume that's how composers made money for centuries before they could actually record their music. These records probably have 40 or 50 short pieces of songs on a single album.

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  3. Wayne Barlow's The Winter's Passed is a really good piece. I like the whole LP it comes from, which I uploaded a number of years ago. The link still works:

    http://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2014/07/americana-for-solo-winds-and-strings.html

    Small point: I think that title is wrong on the record; it should be The Winter's Passed, which is what is on the sheet music, not The Winter's Past, as it is listed on the LP.

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  4. I didn't realize it was from the same one you shared. A lot of them have similar covers, but I'll admit to not checking. :)

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  5. Ernie - I didn't mean to suggest that I minded you posting the item!

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  6. Oh, I don't mind stealing your posts. But I would have linked to you. :)

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