Cold weather coming on, and Christmas arriving in 32 days--so, as a reminder of the summer days of late June to late September, Ferde Grofe's 1949 gem, Death Valley Suite. The occasion for this post is my eBay acquisition of the Purdue Symphony Band performing the third and fourth movement--a performance I predicted would be terrific--and I was correct.
So, first off, Desert Water Hole and Sand Storm, from the 1962 A.B.A. Concert, which Google's AI describes as "the American Bandmasters Association (ABA) convention concert program, which the Purdue Symphony Band performed in." The conductor is Al G. Wright.
Then the same two movements as conducted by Grofe himself with the Capitol Symphony Orch., which was quite an outfit, despite a cutting review by (I think) Stereo Review when the Angel label reissued Death Valley. Or maybe the review was in Hi-Fidelity magazine. I never count on my memory much, since I recall it's pretty vague at times.
Meanwhile, Death Valley will be heading for nice summer-style highs just right for tourists eager to find solace from Jack Frost. And I have no idea why I typed "solace from Jack Frost," but I did, and I only have myself to blame. (Or maybe society itself.)
As an added bonus (forgive the redunadncy; bonuses are always "added"), Grofe's wonderful Valley of the Sun Suite, with Ferde conducting the Arizona State College (Tempe) Symponic Orchestra. And this was my essay when I last posted the work (the zip file since deleted by Workupload):
"From the mysterioso first movement to the joyous, Johann Strauss-esque (am I allowed to type that?) conclusion, this is mood music of the highest class. Making things more interesting are Grofe's reuse of cues from his 1950 movie score for Rocketship X-M (in The Dam Builders) and the insertion of a chord sequence from his very first work, Broadway at Night (1924), at the beginning of the last movement. Grofe was not shy about reusing material, and why not? X-M itself reuses a portion of his Symphony in Steel (1935), and his score for The Return of Jesse James (1950) uses the opening section of his Tabloid Suite (for a telegraph office scene)."
And Google's AI notes that Grofe premiered Sun in 1952, though he composed it in 1957. That was quite a trick. Enjoy, and stay warm...
DOWNLOAD: Death Valley; Valley of the Sun.zip
Death Valley Suite (Grofe, 1949)
Desert Water Hole
Sand Storm
Valley of the Sun Suite (Grofe, 1952 or 1957)
Valley of Ditches
The Dam Builders
Masque of the Yellow Moon
Reclamation's Golden Jubilee
The Purdue Symphony Band, c. Al G. Wright, 1962; The Capitol Symphony Orch., c. Grofe, 1951; Arizona State College (Tempe) Symphonic Orch., c. Grofe, prob. 1957.
Lee
5 comments:
thanks
Sintra blogue,
You're very welcome!
Dave from Ardmore here once again—this time to thank you for your tireless advocacy of Ferde Grofe. Nobody faults Ives or Copland for doing exactly what Grofe did in his "Death Valley Suite." So what were the critics' beefs with this work? Hey, what's another desert storm between friends? As for "Valley of the Sun," it just proves the composer's powers of invention were unflagging. This music is high-grade Americana. By the way, I couldn't help but think "The Dam Builders" was a homage to the WPA, especially whne it became so rhapsodic. Felt like great soundtrack music. And I loved the folksy Henry Cowell-like (later Cowell, of course) third movement. The brass chorale and following choral section in "Masque of the Yellow Moon" is beautiful. The 'Reclamation' seems to a hearfelt toast to this dear country of ours. Overall, this work has been given criminally short shrift. If not for you, I doubt I would have ever known this work exists, let alone have gotten the chance to hear it. My deepest thanks.
Dave from Ardmore,
Thanks! And I plan to reup any number of Grofe posts cancelled by the alleged hosting site which dropped all of my uploads--many of them very carefully retrieved from earlier hosting-site failures. And the sarcastic tone of that "Death Valley Days" review was primarily dismissive in nature--as in, a work not worth reviewing in depth. And there was always a double standard happening with Grofe--his bold experiments with extramusical sounds were treated like a joke, whereas other modern American composers would have been praised for any similar attempt. If anything, it might have been the blunt popular appeal (for want of a better term) of, for example, a number as well-known as "Oh! Susanna" for that wonderful theme-and-variation section which struck critics as too... common. To my ears, it's simply a superbly managed Foster tribute. And Foster IS, in all probability, the greatest American songwriter, so it's impossible to ken where Ferde went wrong in the eyes of the critics. And his subtle and delightful "Hudson River Suite" was ridiculed by TIME for its use of a bowling alley for the incredibly fun "Rip Van Winkle" section. Apparently, it's okay when a top Pops orchestra pulls such a stunt, but not when it's done in good humor by an accomplished composer. And "Rip" is an amazing example of a classic folk tale rendered, with zero pretention(s), in musical form. I DID encounter a very nice Downbeat magazine piece which praised Grofe's music for its unpretentious charms, and I think the reviewer was totally correct. Ironically, Grofe was typically dissed as uninspired AND pretentious. The man couldn't win. Even his lesser "World's Fair Suite" has nice moments, and it did its job as background music for that event. Grofe's specialty was straightforwardly descriptive music, and he had a wonderful talent for it, but I guess the critics figured that just ANYBODY could have done as well. I don't imagine for a moment that his gig was remotely easy. Also, a wonderful online comment by an orchestra member who confirmed what I've always sensed re "The Grand Canyon Suite"--namely, it's VERY difficult to play well. Part of the whole tradition of Grofe putdown has been to pretend that any high school orchestra could easily mater any of his silly little suites. Grofe's problem was an absence of pretension. Critics could have at least have acknowledged his extraordinary talent for musical organization, even if they felt his themes were uninspired. Again, a verdict I totally disagree with. Glad you enjoyed! Oh, and "Dam Builders" is straight from the 1950 "Rocketship X-M" soundtrack and very effectively recycled. In the film, the returning Rocketship is doomed to crash land, with the two conscious survivors swiftly relaying data back to Earth. Extremely effective for that purpose, AND it doubles as an ideal central theme for "Valley." Grofe was so good at quoting his own pieces that I have never once minded hearing a revamped passage by the man.
Er, "Death Valley Suite"! I was thinking of the classic TV Western series...
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