Ballad for ;Americans

Ballad for ;Americans Gordon Clarke (as Uncle Sam) first sang theBallad for Americansin the Federal Theatre (W.P.A.) musical Sing for Your Supper ADELPHI THEATRE in 1939. 54,h ST EAST of 71k AVE WAY back in the 1930's, when the patri- Italian, French and English, Spanish, Rus- bearing Abraham Lincoln home to Springfield otism that long had been regarded as sian, Chinese, Polish, Scotch, Hungarian, Lit- after his death. For all its penchant forlisting the last refuge of scoundrels suddenly became vak, Swedish, Canadian, Greek and Turk/ things-a penchant it shares with many pieces fashionable among liberals (somewhat as it And Czech and double Czech American." We oftheperiod(seethe Latouche quote did again in the Bicentennial year), certain in- all know what happened tothatidea when above)-LonesomeTrainhas survived the vi- tellectuals of the period discovered "the peo- ethnicity came into fashion. Still, theBallad cissitudes of political and musical fashion ple" and "the little man" and "the man in the has its stirring moments. The sound has been rather better than the more famousBallad. street" as a political entity rather than the cleaned up skillfully, and Robeson is not only Here it is given a really superb treatment by sentimental, slightly quaint folk -hero he had a robust singer but a persuasive narrator. Peters, Odetta, and a fine chorus: been for the romantics of the early part of the On the other side of the record, however, nineteenth century. This made for some per- all the power in the considerably powerful ba- ALLthese works are of their period, and fectly dreadful and mercifully forgotten bad ritone of John Charles Thomas cannot rescue they all suffer from a peculiar paradox: the novels, poems, and pageants. Yet, some good the simplistic cipher of a score George Klein- more they glorify simplicity and the "com- things came of it, one of them being theBal- singer applied to passages from Walt Whit- mon man," the more pompous, affected, and lad for Americans,originally calledThe Bal- man'sI Hear America Singing,commissioned unreal they tend to sound. Yet nothing has lad of Uncle Samwhen it was presented as by the International Ladies Garment Work- been written about America in the interim that thefinaleofthegovernment -sponsored ers' Union and first performed in 1940 at a is any better than theBallad for Americansor Works Progress Administration musical revue Madison Square Garden rally in honor of Lonesome Train.A text forBalladis supplied Sing for Your Supperin 1939. Eleanor Roosevelt. (Kleinsinger got $100 for with the United Artists disc, none forLone- Its author was John Latouche, a brilliant the job; he was overpaid. He was to do better some Train.RCA Victrola includesliner poet who was twenty at the time (he later later withTubby the Tuba.) notes only-what do you want for $3.98? wrote the lyrics for, among other successes, -Paul Kresh Cabin in the Skyand the operaThe Ballad of LEGENDARY as Robeson's performance in Baby Doe)and who wanted to write a sermon Ballad for Americansis, the work gets an ROBINSON:Balladfor Americans.Paul in verse protesting intolerance in general and even stronger treatment from Brock Peters in Robeson (bass -baritone); American People's the particular kind of persecution that was a revival on the United Artists label. Peters is Chorus; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, then sweeping Europe. The music was by just as eloquent as Robeson and, at the same Nathaniel Shilkret cond. KLEINSINGER:I Earl Robinson, who wrote in a tuneful idiom time, less patently oratorical in his role as nar- Hear America Singing.John Charles Thomas that "the people" and "the little man" didn't rator. And he sings superbly (a step higher (baritone); ILGWU Chorus; RCA Victor have to strain very hard to enjoy.Sing for Your Supperwas denounced on the floor of Congress as a subversive left-wing plot, but when Norman Corwin managed to get it performed on his new CBS programPursuit of . a tuneful idiom that "the people" and "the little Happiness,theBallad for Americansbecame a nationwide hit. Soon no respectable liberal man" didn't have to strain very hard to enjoy . home was without a copy of the recording, ,...110-47 which featured soloist Paul Robeson, just back after twelve years of self-imposed exile than Robeson, in the key of D). The choral SymphonyOrchestra,NathanielShilkret in London. and orchestral passages, rearranged by Luth- cond. RCA VicrRoLA AMVI-1736 $3.98. RCA Victrola's recent re-release of the er Henderson, are vigorously performed and Balladis quite timely, even though, consider- the whole thing is marvelously well recorded. ROBINSON:Ballad for Americans.Brock ing all this country has been through in the Moreover, the companion piece on this rec- Peters (vocals); chorus and orchestra, Leon- last forty years, the sentiments the piece ex- ord is the even more ambitious cantataLone- ard de Paur cond.Lonesome Train.Brock presses sound wistfully naïve today. La- some Train,another Robinson effort-this Peters (narration); Odetta (vocals); chorus touche's vision was of a homogenized, melt- time to an impressive text by Millard Lampell and orchestra, Leonard de Paur cond. UNIT- ing -pot citizenry, "an Irish, Negro, Jewish, that rehearses the progress of the funeral train ED ARTISTS UA-LA 604G $5.98. 118 STEREO REVIEW.

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