VA - Voices [First Book / Record One] (Argo DA 91, LP, UK, 1970)

Just noticed my last post was a Xmas one, which makes me feel distinctly slack.  So here's another.

Picked up from a record fair at the (wonderful) Auricle Sound Art Gallery (NZ).  50c odd, thanks!

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And via folkcatalogue's blog ("stuff about the Argo record label"), this review in The Gramophone from January 1969:

“Briefly, Argo and Penguin Education have collaborated to produce a set of records to complement the latter’s threebook anthology of poetry and pictures entitled Voices. The anthology is edited by Geoffrey Summerfield, of the York University English and Education departments, costs 25s. 6d. for the three books and has been very well received. The books give the visual and literary side; each record deals with a special topic (heroes, winter, jealousy inter alia) and adds further dimensions through natural, musical and ‘prepared’ sounds. Bands of a disc enclose elements of the topic, so the inbuilt variety might give you some Kodaly, a Rumanian wedding dance, Hardy’s poem on a country fair, a folksong and a movement from Handel’s Royal Fireworks Music. On another side, a Balinese choir, sniffing hedgehogs, a John Clare poem and an Enigma variation will find common ground.

“Although there appears to be no financial package deal, I would think that many people will want to buy both discs and books as it is rather difficult to absorb the poems at first hearing. In any case, one angle that the discs add is musical settings of established poems—two excerpts from Britten’s Serenade appear in this context. The orchestral music, from existing first-class recordings, is programmatic, thus adding possibilities of mime and spontaneous drama to the inexaustible discussion-points of musical and poetic imagery. Mr Summerfield’s introduction, which usefully appears on all six record-leaflets is stimulating, particularly on creative music-making.”

SIDE ONE

Band 1

Noises – knives sharpening

Band 2

The Devil’s Nine Questions (trad) – Peggy Seeger (1)

The Devil’s Polka – Ilona Porma kantele (2)

Band 3

Jabberwocky (Herbert) – n. Mike Newby, Archbishop Holgate’s Grammar School children percussion

Child’s bouncing song (Connor) – Children of Heslington Primary School, York

Jane, Jane (trad) – Shirley Collins & Davy Graham (3)

Band 4

Old Man’s Song (Mellers) – Trinity School, Croydon choir, c. David Squibb

Toward The Grave – Kaarina Kuivalainen vocal, Onno Kuivalainen kantele (4)

Band 5

The Seafarer excerpt – n. Sidney Bradley, read in Anglo-Saxon

Man Cursing the Sea (Holub) – n. David King

Sea Interludes (Storm/Britten) – Royal Opera House (London) Orchestra, c. Benjamin Britten (5)

SIDE TWO

Band 1

Pastoral (trad) – Sicilian shepherd playing open pipe

Shepherds’ Fire (Clare) – n. Peter Orr

Aunt’s Tantrums (Barnes) – n. Freda Dowie

Turf Carrier on Aranmore (Hewitt) – n. Peter Orr

Derby Ram (trad) – Peggy & Mike Seeger unacc. (6)

Band 2

Church bells – sound of bells in Zurich, Switzerland in Bolby B

Bells of Rhymney (Seeger/Davies) – Terry Yarnell & The Critics Group

Band 3

What’s What (Reid) – n. Tony Church

Narnian Suite (Harrex) – staff & students of York University, primary school children spoken chorus

Band 4

Chant before battle – David King

Janos Hary excerpts (Kodaly) – LSO c. Istvan Kertesz (7)

(1) from The Long Harvest Vol 2, Argo ZDA 67, 1967

(2) from Music from the Far North – Argo ZDA 127, 1967

(3) from Folk Routes New Routes – Decca LK 4652, 1964

(4) from Music from the Far North – Argo ZRG 533, 1967

(5) from Decca SXL 2150-2, 1959

(6) from Peggy ‘n’ Mike – Argo ZDA 80, 1967

(7) from Hary Janos – Decca SXL 6136, 1965