Halloween 2009, Part 4! Gould, Grofe, Rose, more!

"A deserted ballroom stands silhouetted in the moonlight. From a far off belfry, the sound of chimes. The ghosts of former dancers appear and do a frenzied swing dance. At the stroke of dawn, they disappear."

So reads the intro to Morton Gould's 1938 novelty Deserted Ballroom, which we'll be hearing in orchestral versions by Mantovani (1955) and Elliot Everett (early 1950s?). I'd meant to include Gould's own piano recording in this set, but... oops. I uploaded the wrong file. That can happen, especially when you have three mp3s under the same title.

We'll be hearing two other Gould miniatures composed around the same time--Robot and Mirage, as performed by Hal Herzon and His Orchestra (or Septet, maybe?). (Read Hal Herzon's 2003 Variety obituary here: Harold Stanford "Hal" Herzon.) The 1948 MGM record set mentioned in the obit (Morton Gould's Musical Fantasies) is something I don't have, but I do own a Herzon LP on the Shamrock label featuring Gould miniatures--it's the source for my rips of Robot and Mirage. None of the LP titles are credited to Gould, and no recording info is given, though the bikinied model whose images fill both sides of the jacket (Andrea Portera, it says) is very attractive. (Hey, cool--the man who photographed her is also the LP's producer.) Unless, like me, you recognize titles like Robot, Hillbilly, Crinoline and Lace, and Tropical as Gould compositions, you're bound to have no idea in creation what this LP is about. Maybe they figured Andrea would sell the LP. (Ha! Figure! Stop me before I pun again.)

Along with Gould, we have two Ferde Grofe tracks--the title music from 1950's Rocketship X-M and a 1963 piece commissioned by Andre Kostelanetz called Trick or Treat. David Rose wrote and recorded the marvelous Satan and the Polar Bear, and someone named Lee Hartsfeld wrote Junk Mail at the Deserted Manor and Toccatica--he's live on the Casio CTK-551, though the first track was resampled and sped up after he decided it dragged too much. Toccatica is a bossa nova version of Bach's famous Halloween piece. Very tongue-in-shriek.

I don't know who wrote Journey Into Space from Antoine de Treville's The Sound of a Thousand Strings LP, but he or she deserves credit for penning one of the most effective mood-music miniatures of all time. I got some nice sound out of a worn pressing (courtesy of the Crown label) that was pretty bad to start with. The original tapes would be wonderful to hear, if they're still anyplace.

To the sounds: ZIP FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

SLAYLIST

DESERTED BALLROOM (Morton Gould)--Mantovani and His Orch., 1955. TRICK OR TREAT--Andre Kostelanetz and His Orch., 1976. ROBOT (Gould)--Hal Herzon and His Orch. (Shamrock 1802) MIRAGE (Gould)--Hal Herzon and His Orch. (Shamrock 1802) SATAN AND THE POLAR BEAR (Rose)--David Rose and His O., 1957. JUNK MAIL AT THE DESERTED MANOR (Hartsfeld)--Lee Hartsfeld, 2009. TOCCATICA (Bach-Hartsfeld)--Lee Hartsfeld, 2009. DESERTED BALLROOM (Gould)--Elliot Everett and His O. JOURNEY INTO SPACE--Antoine De Treville and His Orch. ROCKETSHIP X-M MAIN TITLE (Grofe)--From soundtrack (Starlog LP).


Lee