This all-Christmas LP is from around 1968 (I used Discogs for date-comparing), and we have the highly talented teens from the Evanston (IL) Township High School Festival Chorus sharing with us gorgeous renderings of traditional carols, spirituals, hymns, Messiah selections, and a wonderful Mendelssohn number. These high school students aren't on the level of Norman Luboff's or Robert Shaw's singers, and we wouldn't expect them to be. but they sure sound headed in that direction. Talent, spirit, love for the material--it all comes through on these well-recorded tracks. I wouldn't call the sound superb, but it is certainly adequate, with decent-quality stereo. Something went terribly wrong, sound-wise, with the engineering on the next E.T.H.S. LP I'll be sharing (which hails from around 1971). Whoever engineered the choral tracks on that one should have been banned for life from any and all recording studios. Anyway, a refreshingly traditional line-up here, with Deck the Hall and Orientis Partibus a welcome change from White Christmas or Let It Snow. Nothing against either pop standard, but serious programs shouldn't have to be injected with Tin Pan Alley numbers just to keep things "real." So there. (Harrumph.) No, I'm not being a snob. Well, okay, maybe.
And, while the LP treats Orientis Partibus as author-unknown, Hymnary.org gives the composer as Pierre de Corbeil. And, as we all already knew, "Orientis" is Latin for "East," though I don't know what "Partibus" means. One source claims the words translate to, "From the East came...." but don't ask me. The number is connected with the Festival of the Ass, which celebrated Joseph and Mary's flight into Egypt. It was kind of a pop festival, and the Church eventually banned it for being too fun, or too common, or most likely because it often included the bringing of donkeys into churches. The Church possibly felt things had gotten too ass-inine. Sorry.
Apparently, Orientis Partibus is used as the melody for The Friendly Beasts. I've talked enough. To the talented kids....
DOWNLOAD: Here We Come A'Caroling
Please see label scans for track info....
Lee
No comments:
Post a Comment