Irving Fine

Review: Subtitled "Four Vivariations", Irving Fine's McCord's Menagerie, are settings of humorous poems by David McCord. With the bumbling "loo's" accompanying the tenor melody, Fine's setting of Vultur Gryphus implies a harmless creature. Instead of the movie western's ominous bird associated with death, Fine's animal seems too lazy and stupid to get his own food! Jerboa, classified as the genus jaculus jaculus, is as active and scary in Fine's world as Vultur Gryphus is laid back and friendly. Fine agrees with those to whom a darting (the translation of the Latin jaculus) small rodent is sinister and creepy, attributes he conveys through abrupt entrances and minor tonality. In Mole McCord compares the over-soul of man, a Unitarian concept put forth by Ralph Waldo Emerson, with the limited capacities of the mole. In Clam, Fine and McCord give in to their silliest selves. McCord observes how man the diner and clam the dinner (in chowder no less) both evolved from the same ancestor; man is saved from the clam's fate, according to McCord, by his own initiative and work ethic. Fine has a lot of fun with the sounds suggesting insouciance, which explains why the clam never got ahead! Lots of fun here.

Songlist: Jerboa, Vultur Gryphus, Clam, Mole

8002b | Sheet Music $8.50 | TBB 3 Parts Humorous A Cappella Arrangements

Review: This popular and playful first selection from Three Choral Settings from Alice in Wonderland is now back in print! With piano. Recorded by Gregg Smith Singers with Raymond Beegle, piano - Courtesy Composers Recordings, Inc.This lively selection from Fine's classic Alice in Wonderland is full of dancing rhythms and spirited energy. Available for SATB, SSA and TTBB. Performance Time: Approx. 2:15. Recorded by Gregg Smith Singers with Raymond Beegle, piano. Courtesy of Composers Recordings, Inc.This lively selection from Fine's classic Alice in Wonderland is full of dancing rhythms and spirited energy. Available for SATB, SSA and TTBB. Performance Time: Approx. 2:15. Recorded by Gregg Smith Singers with Raymond Beegle, piano. Courtesy of Composers Recordings, Inc.

Songlist: Lobster Quadrille, Father William, Lullaby of the Duchess

4574b | Sheet Music $6.50 | SATB

Review: Reincarnations is a program of five American masterworks and includes one world premier recording (Tom o'Bedlam). "The Hour Glass" by Irving Fine is difficult and virtuosic cycle, written in a lyrical style just before his 12-tone experimentation. "Tom o'Bedlam" by Jacob Avshlomov is based on a text about one of the patients of the insane asylum, St. Mary of Bethlehem, in 16th century. Accompanied by oboe and percussion, this powerful piece mimics the nonsense and madness in the text. "Reincarnations" by Samuel Barber is a set of three pieces which uses James Stephen's re-writing of old Gaelic poetry and includes the absolutely gorgeous setting of "The Coolin (The Fair Haired One)." All of the works on this recording are demanding but skillfully sung by the incomparable Dale Warland Singers.

Songlist: The Hour Glass, - O know to end as to begin, - Have you seen the white lily grow, - O do not wanton with those eyes, - Against Jealousy, - Lament, - The Hour-Glass, Tom o'Bedlam, Reincarnations, - When again all these rare perfections meet, - All-circling point, - His body was an orb, - On a round ball, - Nor do I doubt, - See how the arched Earth, Psalm 90 (Charles Ives)

7237c | 1 CD $15.98