Sunday morning gospel: Sacred shellac for 9/20/09

Our first selection, Home of the Soul, was recorded a century ago, when the song was 44. It predates The Sweet Bye and Bye, which itself slightly predates the period in which gospel music allegedly began (the Ira Sankey era, circa 1875). Just as any number of rock and roll recordings predate the popularly-presumed beginning point of rock and roll (1952-ish), there are a bunch of pre-gospel gospel songs--among them, O Happy Day; Deliverance Will Come; Rock of Ages; Jesus Loves Me; I Love to Sing of Heaven; and a famous number from today's playlist, Nearer My God To Thee.

The close-harmony quartet singing we associate with gospel and barbershop seems to be a product of the mid-1800s, if not earlier. The more ragtime-y style we associate with the Blackwood Brothers and the Stamps Quartet seems to have had its start in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I say "seems to," because I'm taking most of my evidence from sheet music and printed songbook arrangements. Imagine if sound recording had been invented half a century earlier. (In which case, nerds like me would be wishing it had begun even fifty years earlier.)

The quartet examples from today's playlist--all gorgeous--are conservative examples of what you'd have heard in and outside of middle-class churches in the early 1900s, at least those which employed gospel quartets. We hear hints of the more rhythmical stuff to come with Brighten the Corner, though a contemporary (1910s) quartet version of this number I've yet to discover. That would be the find of my career.

On to our nine selections for today, all lovingly ripped and filtered, etc. by your blogger.


Click hear to here! I mean, here to hear: ZIP FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

PLAYLIST

HOME OF THE SOUL (Phillips)--Whitney Brothers Quartet, 1909.
I AM PRAYING FOR YOU (Cluff-Sankey)--Stanley and Burr, 1909.
THE ROSARY (Ethelbert Nevin)--The Zono Concert Party, 1914.
JESUS, SAVIOUR, PILOT ME (Gould)--Frederic C. Freemantle, 1907.
NEARER MY GOD TO THEE (Mason)--Hayden Quartet, 1908.
CALLING THEE (Gabriel)--Virginia Asher and Homer Rodeheaver, 1920.
SOFTLY FLOATING ON THE AIR (Root)--Columbia Mixed Quartette, 1914.
BRIGHTEN THE CORNER (Ogdon-Gabriel)--Earle F. Wilde, 1919.
HE LOVES EVEN ME (Lawrence)--Earle F. Wilde, 1919.



Lee

Goodwill 78 finds

"Goodwill 78 finds" has a nice, pop-archeological sound to it. As opposed to, for instance, "78s I found at Goodwill." Anyway, $1.99 per 12" four-record album--can you believe it? For $3.98, plus tax, I now have Stokowski's 1935 recording of the Fire Bird suite and Paul Whiteman's 1932 recording of Grofe's Grand Canyon. Actually, this makes my third Whiteman Grand Canyon set, but (big but) this set includes two "Scroll" label discs--i.e., original issues. Along with two reissues. I'll bet it came that way, too.

We'll be hearing one and 1/4 discs from the Stokowski set and one disc (Cloudburst) from the Grofe. I originally tried these with 3.8-gram tracking but 8 grams made for much better reproduction. Track heavy, that's my philosophy. Though I guess it depends on what you've stepped in, the color of the carpet, and so on.

To the restorations: Goodwill 78 finds. Warning: the Stokowski starts out loud. I know it's only a 78, but watch out for that first chord.

PLAYLIST

CLOUDBURST (Grofe, from Grand Canyon suite)--Paul Whiteman and His Concert Orch., 1932. (Victor 36055)

DANCE OF KING KASTCHEI; LULLABY; FINALE (Stravinsky, from Fire Bird suite)--Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orch., 1935. (Victor Red Seal 16698/99)





























Lee

Today's observations

The otherwise drop-dead-gorgeous Sarah Silverman keeps herself too skinny. In my opinion.

No one cares what I think about Sarah? I see. Okay.

On a (no pun intended) less light note, the magnificent Georgie Anne Geyer has written the healthcare-reform post. Please read this: Pray That You Have Insurance.

Meanwhile, Max Baucus' health insurance industry hand-over--I mean, health care bill--stops short of giving Baucus' masters every cent of the average worker's paycheck, so what's up with that? I guess his plan is to start small and then up his proposal gradually. That way, no one notices that all their money is going to the insurance companies until their pay has dropped to 30 cents. ("Honey, didn't we used to make more than this?") See frog-in-boiling-water analogy.

And, as always, while more and more money goes to those who already have tons of it, we get the sour, angry pouting of "moderate" pundits like David Broder, who warns that average, everyday Americans can't keep living high on the hog, that we'll have to make sacrifices if we want some kind of universal health care. Hey, I'm perfectly willing to sacrifice my lack of health care coverage for some degree of it. No, really! Anyway, folks like Broder only get this annoyed when proposals are being made for the common good--as in, for everyone. (What is this, a democracy??)

Ever notice the negative connotation of "common"? Ever notice that things done across the board for the people (vice a small group of the best-off people) are invariably deemed to be (pick one) 1) too costly, 2) an affront to our democracy, 3) measures that could be taken more simply and with greater profit--say, with a voodoo-healthcare, savings-account-type plan, 4) proof that our President is Hitler, or 5) a reason to scream things like "What happened to my America????"

Yes, doing things for the people is SO anti-democratic.

Anyway, more music coming. Very soon, if not sooner.


Lee

Sunday morning gospel: Sacred Shellac for (1905-1914)

So, two things about the Westminster Choir's Onward Christian Soldiers--the label number makes it late 1909, not 1911--my mistake. The recording itself might be even earlier. And it's not the Onward tune most of us know, which is by Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame) and called St. Gertrude. This tune is by W.H. Jude. (No, the H. isn't for "Hey.")

By the way, prior to Sullivan's tune, the text was sung with a melody adapted from Haydn. That tune never caught on. The Jude tune did, to some extent. And I've always wanted to type "The Jude tune did, to some extent."

All of these selections are 1) acoustically recorded, 2) marvelous, and 3) from double-sided Victor 78s, which started in 1908. We know, therefore, that the pre-1908 titles in today's playlist originated as single-sided 78s. In case you were wondering.

My cat, Perry, wants to know what a "Jude tune" is. He thinks I'm talking about the Beatles. By the way, have you noticed that we're currently in a Beatles phase, pop-culture-wise? Hard to miss if you watch TV. Basically, the media is in one of two phases: it's busy reducing all of pop culture to either Elvis or the Beatles. Must get pretty complicated to keep track of which of the two phases we're in. I mean, seems like a lot of work. I think NPR maintains a central hotline to keep people up to date on whether we're in Elvis or Beatles mode. (Phone voice: "Beatles. No, wait--this just in. Elvis. Repeat: Elvis.")

In other news, I got lost during this morning's service--I thought I had the Doxology in front of me, but it was the wrong music. Turns out the Doxology was on the reverse. The old two-sided-document trick. Otherwise, things went fine, save for Mary forgetting about our second hymn. Notice a binary subtext here?

To the 1905-1914 gospel: Sunday morning gospel: FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

PLAYLIST

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS (W.H. Jude)--Westminster Choir, 1909 (not 1911). THROW OUT THE LIFE LINE--Hayden Quartet, 1909. ROCK OF AGES (Toplady-Hastings)--Trinity Choir, 1906. LEAD KINDLY LIGHT--Hayden Quartet, 1909. WHEN THE ROLL IS CALLED UP YONDER--Hayden Quartet, 1909. HE LEADETH ME--Reinald Warrenrath, 1905. WHISPERING HOPE (S. Winner)--Olive Kline--Elsie Baker, 1914. ABIDE WITH ME--Olive Kline--Elsie Baker, 1914.

Lee