Sunday, June 07, 2020

The Pan-Harmonic Musical Education Society presents... Songs of Faith, Prayers and Hymns (1959)




These Golden Record Library LPs are thrift store staples, and I could have had the entire set at one point--at 99 cents apiece.  Nah.  And I haven't lived to regret it, either.  But this one looked fun, and I thought it would be an interesting change of pace to post an LP of standard church hymns sung in traditional fashion by a traditional choir.  Whoever they were.  They receive no credit anyplace.  The closest thing we get is, "Musical Direction by the Pan-Harmonic Musical Education Society.  Orchestral, Choral, Chamber and Folk Music Divisions Supervised by Leading Educators and Musicologists."  I see--fine.  Why do budget labels always carry on as if their cut-rate offerings were the most amazing things out there?  It's some weird rite of reversal....

Naturally, A.A. Records (or Bell Records, Inc.??) failed to coordinate the jacket title with the one on the label.  The jacket says, Songs of Faith, Prayers and Hymns, and the label says, Songs of Faith, Prayer, Hymns, which makes slightly more sense.  I mean, what exactly are songs of prayers and hymns?  This is what happens when the Oxford comma isn't used--the last two items in a series become a pair.  Ah, but on the back jacket, just above the track listing, we see, Songs of Faith, Prayers, and Hymns.  (A.A. found the missing comma.)  And "songs of prayers" is a commonly used phrase, so we're fine.  And I didn't know it was commonly used until I Googled it just now.

Oh, and in the Golden Record Library series listing on the back, this LP's title becomes Songs for Faith, Prayer and Hymns.  So, four variations on a single title.  Anyway, very good choral work on these tracks, with everyone singing like they mean it.  It helps that these are all great numbers.  I suppose the musical quality is better than we have a right to expect.  The Onward Christian Soldiers rendition is especially memorable (though the closing reverb is a little weird), and, as I always love to point out, the composer of the 1871 tune was Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame.  Arthur replaced the drab-sounding tune (adapted from Haydn) that was originally used with the text.  In one of my zillion songbooks, I have Onward... set to the Haydn tune.  The Haydn tune is actually fine--it just fails to register with these words.  It was a marriage not meant to last.

You know, instead of making fun of A.A. Records for its careless packaging, I should be praising it for providing an inexpensive Musical Heritage for Young America.  I mean, when's the last time I provided young America with a musical heritage?  And I mentioned Bell Records, and that's who gets the 1959 copyright credit--Bell Records, Inc.  But Bell was not associated with A.A. Records, to the best of my knowledge.  So... I have no idea.

One of A.A.'s sub-labels was Golden Records, and I assume that explains "The Golden Record Library," of which this was the 12th volume.  I think it was the last in the set.  Something about this LP says "Mail-order product."  (Now my records are talking to me....)

Excellent choir, whoever they were.  And a cool period cover.  For a buck minus a dime, a good buy.



DOWNLOAD: Songs of Faith, Prayers and Hymns (1959)





Lee

10 comments:

Buster said...

The rack jobbers who serviced the supermarkets of the time thought that what young America needed most was culture. So they were filled with cheap encyclopedias, the music of the Great Masters and this nod to faith.

The title of this record would have less problematic if it had been phrased "Hymns, Prayers, and Songs of Faith." But I suppose the record company wanted to emphasize the songs.

Larry said...

Ah, a cut rate price for cut down songs. At least they didn't do fade outs at inappropriate moments as was commonly done with the Classical music samplers of the day.

Taken out of context, the second half of the first verse of A mighty Fortress is our God sounds like a tribute to the devil. In some cases one verse is NOT enough, pastor. (Sorry, frustrating flashback.) How is it that words can come out of our mouths without us understanding what we are saying? Are we just lazy? Going with the flow? Am I preaching? Do I need to quote some scripture to cover this?

I wonder if any of these truncated performances ever made it it vinyl in their full versions - in particular Abide with Me. (Might be a needle in the haystack type project to find it.)

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Buster,

Yes, but "songs of hymns"? Then again, I recall a number called "The Songs of the Old Country Church." That would qualify.

There was also an emphasis on families getting culture. Those survive in epic numbers, too, of course. I guess the presumption was that the parents hadn't gotten any culture as kids. Turning on the masses to high culture is a concept that goes back to the early days of sound recordings and radio, of course. It presumes that people care about it. At some point, people officially decided the whole introduction-to-culture movement was insulting, because, at least when it comes to music, ordinary people have nothing to learn, apparently. They already know their circles of fourths, understand figured bass lines, know the difference between relative and minor and plagal and authentic cadences, etc. It's uncool to have some longhair try to explain things. Or some guy pointing out that, no, your five year old niece's drawings are not as good as Picasso's.

Larry--I got the impression (just an impression) that the selections were deliberately short--i.e., not cut down. Except for one selection, which shuts off abruptly. But I also wonder if they were, in fact, edited. Dunno. I'm thinking not, because the truncated collections are usually catch-all, with selections culled from wherever the labels can nab them, and this is clearly the same choir throughout. There's no Franken-collection feel to it. And I suspect they were paid once, and that was it. Which makes their enthusiasm for the material seem a little odd, though I don't complain. I think it would definitely be a next to impossible task to trace these in longer versions, if such exist. Then again, I'm a student of the obscure. (Whatever I mean by that....)

Lee Hartsfeld said...

I meant, "relative major and minor." The difference between.

Il Commendatore said...

Thanks a lot!

rev.b said...

I remember this series frorm childhood, if memory serves, an even dozen. it wouldn't upset me one bit if you posted the whole series, but it looks like that's a bridge too far. Thanks for this one tho'.

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Yeah, I was too cheap to spring for the $12 when the entire set showed up. These kinds of things are fun, though--I have a Synthetic Plastics Corp. "A Century of American Music" set (https://www.discogs.com/Various-A-Century-of-American-Music/release/8151533) that I sort of want to share, but it's a lot of material (four discs). I could do excerpts, I guess. Discogs doesn't i.d. the set as SPC, but I traced all the sources, and it's SPC. It features a "Rock Around the Clock" version falsely credited to Bill Haley, but it's the 1964 Phil Flowers version on SPC's Kasey label: http://www.45cat.com/imageview/1D29B94276A18FB94C0

Following the budget trail is always an adventure.

A man for whom Christ died said...

Lee,
Thanks for an interesting folder. Me being me (don't have time to go into what all that means LOL), I've never heard of several of these and the ones I've barely heard of, not in this fashion. Yeah, no doubt, this is the same choir and I believe these cuts are, um, full-length cuts. Oh and I don't get the added reverb on the end of Soldiers either, but what's at the beginning, sounds like typical period reverb, so maybe they just decided to punch it a little. Oh and did you know (I'm sure you did) that there are two melodies for Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus? I believe the other (less-familiar) one, is in The All American Hymnal, which I used several years ago, at a church in another state, that same hymnal containing (I believe) the only other place I've seen From Greenland's Icy Mountains. Speaking of that, when I've lead singing over the years at various churches, I've always tried to do all the verses, but would you believe, I got raked over the coals for doing that in one particular place? Oh and that same person (not the Pastor BTW) griped about me requesting folk to stand while they sung all those verses! Anyway, while I'm here, I'm not the English teacher (Jess is LOL), but, wouldn't the Songs Of go with the Faith and Prayers and Hymns be separate things altogether? Oh and on the mail-order aspect, this sounds similar to something I saw advertised on TV back in the '80s, but I believe the choir here, was more enthusiastic and I believe the other choir, had a piano and an organ. Thanks again, love and prayin' for ya!

Romans 11:33-36 KJB

Josh
Podcast: http://www.jeremiah616.sermon.net
Callcast: (563) 999-3967
Blog: http://www.brojoshowens.wordpress.com
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Lee Hartsfeld said...

Hi, Josh. A few were new to me, as well. And this is the "Stand up, Stand up" melody I'm familiar with, but I see that the All-American Hymnal uses both this version (George Webb) and a later (1901) tune by Adam Geibel. Geibel's music also shows up in the Broadman and Baptist Hymnals. Here it is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQRYRCl0b7Y Cool. I wasn't aware of this melody. I found a third one, too.

The "Stand up, Stand up..." text is from 1858. The better-known tune goes back to 1830.

"Greenland's Icy Mountains" was a one-time standard (tune is from 1823, the text, 1819), but it doesn't show up much nowadays. Too bad, really. Nice to have it on a 1959 collection. I'm going to have to search my books to see if I have "Fling out the Banner" (new to me) in any of them.

Yes, all three things (faith, prayers, hymns) should be separate, which is why I prefer the Oxford comma. Though "Songs of hymns" doesn't make total sense, but since this is a budget LP, we can let it slide! Thanks for chiming in. Best, Lee

A man for whom Christ died said...

Thanks for the Stand Up info. The only other place I had ever heard the other melody ('til that Youtube post), is from an album I have of Mrs. Preston Garrett, long-time pianist, organist and vybroharpest on The Bright Spot Hour. Found three cuts from her on Youtube (audio with pics of album covers, I assume), her playing the organ on all three.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RTkfcaFB1o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARKSGDgjmrQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tutl_AMN4Xc

'Til later, love and prayin' for ya!

Romans 11:33-36 KJB

Josh
Podcast: http://www.jeremiah616.sermon.net
Callcast: (563) 999-3967
Blog: http://www.brojoshowens.wordpress.com
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/preacher-friends