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