Gustav Holst, Carl Michael Ziehrer, Julius Fucik, Victor Herbert, Coleridge-Taylor--Shellac City, U.S.A. (1900-1938)

 

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(Left: Europe's Society Orch.--image swiped from Red Hot Jazz Archive)

Today, the fourth movement of Gustav (The Planets) Holst's St. Paul Suite in a 1938 recording by The Jacques String Orchestra; James Reese Europe's Castle House Rag recorded in 1914 by Europe's Society Orchestra, mistakenly released by Victor as The Castles in Europe; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's famous Viking Song, (almost definitely the source for the Monty Python "Spam song") in the 1918 Vicrola label version by baritone Emilio de Gogorza; Julius Fucik's Entry of the Gladiators (as Einzug der Gladiatoren) and Austrian composer Carl Michael Ziehrer's Kinderlieden Marsch (a famous piece I'd never before heard) in amazingly high-fidelity ca. 1926 German recordings from a 12-inch Brunswick 78; and such old, old "pop" titles as Hot Time in the Old Town, Rag Time Skedaddle, Swanee (Gershwin), Cocoanut Dance, Sand Dance, and Dardanella Blues, the last title a cash-in on the smash hit Dardanella, and by two of the same writers, which was handy, since I imagine this closed the door to any charges of theft.  I was expecting something far more clever, though--maybe a song about someone who's got the blues from hearing Dardanella all the time--a cool kind of satirical self-reference.  Instead, the lyrics have something to do with the songwriter's sweetheart not being willing to marry the songwriter until he, um... does something.  Until he changes the bass figure to the song, maybe?  Someone dashed off those words in a hurry, and too bad--this could have been a memorable parody, or least a meaningful one.  By the way, the Dardanella bass figure was appropriated by Jerome Kern for his song Ka-Lu-A (1921), which resulted in a lawsuit and a small fee.  It's always possible that Kern simply came up with a similar figure, and by accident, though I doubt it.  That's in the same probability zone as Buddy Holly having just happened to sound like Bo Diddley on Not Fade Away.  Not buying it.  When you have a big hit, and it's followed by something which sounds like a copy-cat version, either in whole or part, coincidence is the least probable explanation.

So, you might wonder, is the 1900 Sand Dance an example of early exotica (as in early, early exotica)?  The answer, unfortunately, is no--and, even if there was even the slightest trace of exotica, the arrangement's use of Arkansas Traveler would kill the mood.  Cocoanut Dance--which, despite the title, sounds more minstrel than island--was ripped from a considerably less than mint copy, and the ca. 1903-1908 date range likely means that it sold a ton of copies, requiring virtuoso banjoist Vess Ossman to return to the studio and do new waxings over a five-year period (as the masters wore out, due to demand).  That's my best guess, unless the recording date stretched out to half a decade, with endless retakes until the Columbia Disc Record folks felt things were just right.  That seems far less likely.  Spending five years on a single is something invented by the rock era.

Rag Time Skedaddle is a piccolo solo (with piano accompaniment), and nowadays no one, as far as I know, associates rags or cakewalks with the piccolo, but things were different in the early 1900s--I know of at least several other piccolo-solo ragtime recordings.  Maybe, once upon a time, aspiring ragtime performers were advised to take up the piccolo. The big, bassy 1927 dance band sides (Art Landry and Johnny Hamp) may be a little jarring to the ears after the ten acoustical sides that precede them--they're apt to sound quite lifelike at first, if only because they're electric, and also because Victor liked its dance sides loud. 

A lovely 1920 side by John McCormack, possibly my all-time favorite singer, may be a bit out of place in this collection of light music, showtunes, piccolo rags, and 1927 dance numbers, but it sort of fits in with the general lack of scheme, I think.  A few repeats in the playlist: The Red Lantern, one of my all-time favorite dance sides (1919, when big bands consisted of nine or so players), Lanciers Figure 5 from Victor Herbert's Dolly Dollars (Prince's Orchestra, 1906--a "lancier" or "lancer" being very much like an American square dance), and Hello, My Dearie, by Prince's Band (as opposed to his orchestra), which was a number from Ziegfield Follies of 1917.  The Follies were inspired by the Folies Bergère, which was an actual music hall in Paris, whereas the Ziegfield Follies were performed in multiple locations.  And I hate phrases like "multiple locations," because "locations" is already plural.  It's like, on the nightly news, when an announcer talks about an accident involving "multiple cars."  Um, as opposed to a single cars?

If you don't know Hearts and Flowers by name, you'll recognize it a few bars into it.  I think most of us first heard it in a Looney Toons cartoon or as background music in a silent-film compilation.  You'll quickly discover you that know it by flower.  I mean, by heart.  Well, except for the dramatic bridge.  As used in the media, Hearts and Flowers is only a fraction of the whole.  Like the love theme from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.  How many people know that past the first eight bars?

Narcissus is one of my favorite light instrumentals of all time, and I first heard it in a bitonal (in two different keys) version as part of the background music for the 1962 Thriller episode "Cousin Tundifer." A terrific episode, though the special effects (a room gradually changing from the present to the past) seemed less impressive after I'd figured out how they'd been done (by creative matte work).  It was years before I heard the piece as written, and it may have been from a sheet music copy.  This Arthur Pryor recording is quite nice, and, as far as the 1908 and 1913 dates go (see playlist), Arthur must have re-recorded it in the latter year, using the same catalog number.  I probably have the 1913 version, as the Online 78 rpm Disco graphical Project says, "5=6/17/13."  And, sure enough, there's a tiny "5" in the dead wax.  Can we assume 1913?  Yeah, I'll go with that.

To the shellac...

PLAYLIST

St. Paul's Suite (Holst)--The Jacques String Orchestra, c. Reginald Jacques, 1938
The Castles in Europe (Castle House Rag) (Jas. Europe)--Europe's Society Orchestra, 1914
Viking Song (Wright/Coleridge-Taylor)--Emilio de Gogorza, 1918
Einzug der Gladiatoren (Fucik)--Georg Scharf's Brass Orchestra (Prob. 1926)
Kinderliedermarsch (Ziehrer)--Same
Hot Time in the Old Town--Medley March--Victor Military Band, 1917
Rag Time Skedaddle (George Rosey)--Frank Mazziotta, Piccolo Solo w. Piano (Victor 4033; ca. 1903-1910)
Swanee (I. Caesar-George Gershwin)--Peerless Quartet, 1918
Why Did I Kiss That Girl (King-Henderson)--Jos. Samuels' Music Masters, 1924
A Smile Will Go a Long Long Way (Davis-Akst)--Lanin's Arcadians, 1924
Cocoanut Dance (Andrew Herrmann)--Vess L. Ossman, Banjo Solo w. Orch. (Columbia Disc Record No. 1705; ca. 1903-1908)
Sand Dance (L. Childers)--George Schweinfest, Piccolo Solo (Lakeside Disc Record 70207; re. Columbia 195, 1900)
Hearts and Flowers (Tobani)--Victor Orchestra, 1908
The Red Lantern--Medley (Fischer, Cowan, Monaco)--Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, Dri. Joseph Knecht, 1919
Narcissus (Ethelbert Nevin)--Arthur Pryor's Band (Victor 16029, 1908 or 1913)
The Whisper Song (Cliff Friend)--Art Landry and His Orchestra, w. vocal chorus, 1927
One O'clock Baby (De Sylva-Brown-Jolson)--Johnny Hamp's Kentucky Serenaders, V: Franklyn Baur, 1927
Dardanella Blues (Fisher-Black)--Billy Murray-Ed. Smalle (1920)
Wonderful World of Romance (Simpson-Wood)--John McCormack, Tenor with orchestra, 1920
Miss Dolly Dollars--Lanciers Figure 5 (Victor Herbert)--Prince's Orchestra, 1906
Golden Sunset Waltz (Hall)--Same
Hello, My Dearie--One-step--Prince's Band, 1917
Ching-chong--One-Step (Roberts-Strictland)--Same

Lee