A Whole Lot of American Music

I'm going to do something a bit different today. I've got a bunch, a BUNCH, of recordings of American classics that I have transferred over the months and been sitting on. In one fell swoop, I'm offering them up here for some industrial size transferring. Here goes!

The first one is the jacket above of music of Ruggles and Cowell, a monaural Columbia recording, ML4986. Pianist John Kirkpatrick shines in Evocations! It's a masterpiece played by a master!

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Monaural ARS-38 - music by Henry Brant and Burrill Phillips.

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The excellent Beveridge Webster playing Copland, Sessions and Carter on Dover HCR5265 - monaural.

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Dean Dixon conducts symphonies of Cowell and Piston on ARS 112 - monaural. One of my favorite conductors.

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Music of Swanson, Diamond and Hanson of ARS6 & ARS 7 - monaural. Dean Dixon again along with the underrated Texan, Walter Hendl.

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Chamber Music of Harris and Diamond with Lawrence Sobol, clarinet. Grenadilla GS1007 Stereo. Mid 70's Super, super musicianship here.

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Longtime New England Conservatory professor Veronica Jochum plays MacDowell and Griffes on stereo Golden Crest CRS4168. Mid 70's. If you do not know Eugen Jochum's daughter, now is your chance to make her acquaintance!

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Have fun! Whew!

Trios by Ives and Harris



Charles Ives

Roy Harris



Two trios by Ives and Harris, from an HNH record of 1977. Very solid performances are given by the New England Trio, a group that I have not previously encountered.

Charles Ives never ceases to amaze me. Of all composers, he most brilliantly hammered home the message that music is an elastic art form. From wikipedia:



"The Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano is a work by the American composer Charles Ives. According to Charles Ives’ wife, the three movements of the piano trio are a reflection of Ives’ college days at Yale. He started writing the piece in 1904, 6 years after graduation, and completed it in 1911. It was written c. 1909-10 and significantly revised in 1914-15. The piano trio consists of three movements:

1  Moderato
2  TSIAJ ("This scherzo is a joke"). Presto
3  Moderato con moto.


The first movement is the same 27 measures repeated three times, though the violin is silent for the first, the cello for the second, and all three instruments join for the third. Interestingly, the separate duets seem full enough on their own, yet all together sound amazingly and uncharacteristically consonant.

The second movement, TSIAJ, employs polytonality, timbral contrast, and quotation for a downright humorous effect. Fragments of American folk songs are intertwined throughout the movement, although often grotesquely altered with respect to rhythm, pitch, and harmonic connotation. Folk songs appearing in the scherzo include "My Old Kentucky Home," "Sailor's Hornpipe," "The Campbells are Coming," "Long, Long Ago," "Hold the Fort," and "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood," among many others. Drawing from his college days at Yale University, Ives also quotes a number of fraternity songs including the Delta Kappa Epsilon tune "A band of brothers in DKE," which appears prominently near the beginning of the movement. It is notable that one of his sketches for the movement includes the subtitle "Medley on the Campus Fence," referring to the songs popular among Yale students during his college years. And although the composer himself acknowledged that the entire movement was a "joke," it well characterizes the unique and novel musical world that only Ives had discovered.
 The lyricism of the final movement of the piano trio contrasts strongly with the variegated montage of tunes in TSIAJ. Sweeping lyrical melodies alternate with lighter syncopated sections after the opening introduction and violin recitative. Nonetheless, Ives continues with his borrowing habits - quoting music that he had originally written for the Yale Glee Club (though it was rejected) in the lyrical violin-cello canon in bars 91-125. The coda quotes Thomas Hastings’ “Rock of Ages” in the cello, ending the movement with Ives’ characteristic rooting in American folk and popular music."

As for Roy Harris, less experimentation and music that is always tonal and outwardly positive. This very approachable trio juxtaposes well against the sometimes maddening demands of the Ives.

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Walter Hendl conducts Sessions, Harris and Schuman on ARS

How happy I was to find this lp, again, last week. I've owned a copy for years but it proved to be in a very poor shape and though I tried to transfer it, the odds were against that enterprise. So, when I came across this in a second hand shop, I rejoiced. Great condition and eminently transferable...here it is.

We have here Sessions' The Black Maskers, Schuman's American Festival Overture and Harris' monumental Symphony No 3. Everything is led by the underrated American conductor Walter Hendl with the American Recording Society Orchestra, whomever they be.

These are strongly shaped and idiomatic performances. No excuses need to be made for committed music making even if the orchestra is less then first rate. Hendl understands, and loves, this music well and the results bear witness to that. Listen to the "dirge" from Black Maskers and you'll get the picture. Great mid 20th century fare, no doubt about that.

I'd like to hear more from Hendl. Hopefully some other bloggers will take notice; I'll be on the lookout for his other recordings.

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