Christmas In July 2020-19
Good evening! The weekend may be over, but here's a little more Christmas music to make it last a bit longer. I think this may be the longest share so far due to the inclusion of a couple of really long pieces. Hope you like it!
1. My Favourite Things by Maureen Hartley And Shirley Chapman, Orchestrated And Conducted By Sam Fonteya from The Sound Of Music (Music For Pleasure (UK) MFP 1007, Mono, 1965). You can tell it's from the UK because of the U in Favourite.
2. Song Of The Bells by Frederick Fennell Conducting The Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra from The Music of Leroy Anderson, Vol. 2 (Mercury SR90043, Stereo, 1958). We hadn't seen any Leroy Anderson in a while, so I figured we were due.
3. I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing by The Porter Twin Disc Music Box from Music Box-Past And Present (Porter Music Box Records 104, Stereo, 1985). Yes, it's the Coke Christmas song as played by a music box.
4. March Of The Toys by Skitch Henderson, His Piano And The Stereosonic Strings From Autumn In New York (Mount Vernon Music MVS 107, Stereo). Gotta love the Skitch Henderson.
5. Christmas Oratorio-The Sinfonia by The Stockholm Concert Orchestra-Conducted By Hugh Ross from The Majesty Of Sacred Music (Word W-4027-LP, Mono, 1966). By Bach, I believe.
6. Atlas Eclipticalis + Winter Music + Cartridge Music (Simultan) by Ensemble Musica Negativa-Dir.: Rainer Riehn from Avant Garde (Deutsche Grammophon (Germany) 137 009, Stereo, 1969). The writing credit on this one is John Cage, but I don't know how much of it he wrote. After a lot of confusion, I decided they were playing all the compositions at once, they weren't individual tracks.
7. I Wonder As I Wander by The Roger Wagner Chorale, Solo-Salli Terri from Folk Songs Of The New World (Capitol P8324, Mono, 1956). Good stuff.
8. Jolly Coppersmith by Al Melgard from Al Melgard At The Chicago Stadium Organ-World's Largest Theatre Pipe Organ (Audio Fidelity AFSD 5886, Stereo, 1958). I saw this on a Christmas record a long time ago, but I don't think it's really a Christmas song. But that never stops me.
9. The Angel Band by an unknown band from Making Music Your Own-Kindergarten Record IV (Silver Burdett Records 75 180 4, Mono, 1966). Lots of tracks from this one.
10. Variations On A Theme By Prokofieff by Brookside Jr. High School Music Department-Concert Band-Bernard Rightmyer, Conductor from Winter Concert-Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 1971 (United Sound USR 4026, Stereo, 1972). Some of my favorite classical Christmas music.
11. Snow Queen by The Kiddie Playhouse And Orchestra from An Hour Of Fairy Tales-Tales Of Hans Christian Anderson (Altone AST-224, Mono, 1957). I haven't shared too many stories with you this year.
12. D Is For A Little Donkey That Went To Bethlehem by Anita Bryant-Arranged And Conducted By Robert Mersey from The ABC Stories Of Jesus (Columbia CS 8675, Stereo, 1962). I rather enjoy these little alphabet bits from Anita Bryant, but I haven't gotten any comments about them. I guess you folks aren't as excited by them.
13. Concerto Grosso In G Minor, Op. 6, No. 8 "Christmas" by Dean Eckertson, Virtuosi Orchestra from Pachelbel: Kanon And Other Baroque Favorites (Sine Qua Non SQN-7772, Stereo, 1976). Lots of Classical Christmas today for some reason.
14. The Toy Trumpet by Dave Harris And The Powerhouse Five from Dinner Music For A Pack Of Hungry Cannibals (Decca DL 4113, Mono, 1961). I was so excited to find this record, and then doubly so to see there was something on it could share out as Christmas. I only wish it had been a stereo copy.
15. Two Traditional Carols by The Women's Ensemble Of Bethany Lutheran Church, Melodie Bollman-Director, Eleanor Peura-Accompanist from The Ensemble Sings (Century Advent Recording LRS-RT-6062 (Astabula, Ohio), Stereo). Bringing up the rear with the ladies from Ohio.
Another good day of Christmas music, lemme know what your favorite is. Here's the link...
There's a lot of interesting items here.
ReplyDeleteSo that Dave Harris record is devoted to Raymond Scott? I haven't seen that one.
I would beware of junior high bands playing Prokofiev (or anything, really), but you seemed to like it!
My rule of thumb for records labeling themselves as "avant garde" is to expect anything, none of it good. Especially when they are playing the compositions simultaneously rather than sequentially.
I'm looking forward to Skitch, Leroy Anderson and that English "My Favo(u)rite Things."
Yes, the Dave Harris is all Raymond Scott, and it is great!
ReplyDeleteThe Avant Garde is very, um, avant garde. Good luck with it.
The "Ensemble Musica Negativa" is aptly named, I'd say. Somehow its grunts and groans and squeaks did not remind me of chestnuts roasting on the open fire. It did make me laugh once or twice, though.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it goes on and on and on, aimlessly. Sort of like my posts on the blog.
ReplyDeleteYour posts usually have a beginning, a middle and an end. That piece just has a, well, I don't know what part it has. But it goes on for a long time...
ReplyDeleteThe squeaks and skronks did not have any form that I could discern. And it was, as you note, endless.
ReplyDeleteI was three minutes in to the Avant Garde piece before I went to my media player and realized that there were still 16 more minutes... SKIP.
ReplyDeleteAs for other tracks, a few good ones including Skitch's March of the Toys, The Toy Trumpet and My Favourite Things (liked the first minute or so).
You can't go wrong with Skitch!
ReplyDelete