Page SixTHMCHGNDLYStdaDcme5,97

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Saturday, December. 5. 1970


Idyllic forays into recorded past

LUiATI0USI

-Daily-Jim Judkis

music
Uta Voice gives
concert cum history
By ANDY COHEN
U. Utah Phillips, the Golden Voice of the Great Southwest,
gave a concert cum history lesson at the Residential College au{'
ditorium Thursday evening.
He started the concert with a few words about his cold ("I'm a
bit wobbly, you know, and with all the pills I've been taking,' I'm
just about as wobbly as I've ever been"), and a few jokes about the
weather ("Where I come from in Utah, it's so windy, why I once
saw a hen lay the same egg five times!")
Then he had the students imagine that they were in a crowd-
ed hall, meeting for the first time. "After the pontificators got
through putting the people to sleep," he said, "here would be a
singer to wake them up again, singing songs in simple language,
and using tunes that everybody already knew." To exemplify this,
he led thehail in a rousing rendition of "Roll the Union On."
He spoke of Joe Hill, a songwriter for the I.W.W., and about
his "mail order" songs: a person or organization would write to the,
I.W.W. office, enclosing the particulars of their struggle, and Joe
Hill would send back a batch of tailor-made picket line songs.
Utah talked about his own personal heroes, the many anony-
mous organizers of unions who lost their lives in conflicts over
wages and hours:
Every new grave is a thousand new members,
In the Union buryin' ground.
And he spoke of "the purpose why this here soiree was called
In the first place," namely to raise money for the purchase of books
about working class history for distribution to some of the area's
high schools. "If those hard-hats in New York had known about
the men and women who died so that they could work an eight hour
day, maybe they would recognize that the peace demonstrators
weren't really their enemies. The struggle for a decent life is ev-
erybody's province, and there's a lot of good tactical information
in these books."
Those interested in working on this project should contact
Maren Wilhelmy, 764-5660, or Juan Figueras, 764-2699.

(Continued from Page 2)
standard fireworks in the colo-
ratura's bag of tricks. Even
scales, fluttering arpeggios, true
trills (alternation between two
adjacent tones, not a mere vi-
brato shake), incredible breath
control (eternally held tones
with crescendi and decrescendi)
were all tossed off effortlessly.
Galli-Curci's perfection was not
t h e cold mechanistic transla-
tion of notes into sound that
one associates with a Lily Pons.
Her vocal art possessed an in-
imitable personal warmth which
permeated all h e r recordings,
whether of lyric recitatives, or
of the shallowest display pieces,
She was also a consumate musi-
cian, neither breaking off phras-
es illogically for gasps of breath
n o r vulgarly scooping into
neighboring tones.
The selection of fairly stand-
ard coloratura repertory on this
disc (by Bellini, Rossini, De-
libes et al.) was recorded be-
tween 1917 and 1924. In all cases,
the earliest recordings capture
Galli-Curci at her greatest, in
full possession of all the mirac-
ulous powers'ascribed to h e r
,above. The 1917 "Una voce po-
co fa" (Rossini's Barber) dis-
plays cascading roulades of liq-
uid tone in the florid passages,
while the 1924 'Bel raggia lus-
inghier (Rossini's Semiramide)
already lacks the definition and
clarity in fioritura previously
heard in "Una voce," and be-
trays the pitch problem which
were to plague Galli-Cruci in-
creasingly to the end of her ca-
reer in opera (1930). However,
what is less than perfect on this
disc is almost unattainable for
any other vocalist on or o f f
discs, so that to the less un-
grateful listener my observa-
tions will seem like picayune
cavilling.
The disc devoted to the great
dramatic soprano Kirsten Flag-
stad (VIC-1517) is a mixed
blessing. RCA has limited the
selections in this release to ar-
ias which Flagstad recorded
with Ormandy and the Phila-
delphia Orchestra in 1937, and
although this singer's splendi-
ferous tone pours forth more
compellingly than ever, the lis-
tener is forced to put up with
Ormandy's shallow theatricality
in the Immolation Scene from
Wagner's Goetterdaemmerung.
This would be forgiveable or-
dinarily, but not h e r e where
this one excerpt takes up the
whole first side (17 minutes),
giving the buyer too little music
for his money. Furthermore,
Seraphim has a recording out
of the same scene with Flagstad
and Furtwaengler, with similar-
ly glorious singing backed by a
truly distinguished orchestral
performance (Ser. 00003).
Side two, however, alleviates
the situation somewhat by of-
fering impressive singing of a
sizeable amount of music (26.5
minutes). The treachously high
tessitura of Beethoven's Ah,
Perfido! is sung faultlessly, yet
with sensitivity of phrasing and
great warmth, the latter qual-
ity being one not usually asso-
ciated with Wagnerian sopran-
os. The clarion Flagstad voice
soars freely over the orchestra
in "Dubist der Lenz" from Die
Walkuere, while the vocal ac-

robatics of "Ozean, du Unge-
heuer" from Weber's Oberoh ap-
parently hold no terrors for the]
Norwegian diva.
An imperfect release, perhaps,
but one to treasure nonetheless
for its portrayal of a spectacular
voice used musically.
RCA has finally accorded
Louise Homer, one of the Met-
ropolitan Opera's three great-
est contraltos during its Golden
Age (1903121) a long overdue
solo LP recital (VIC-1519). The
other two reigning contraltos of
that trinity were Ernestine Sch-
umann-Heink (represented by a
highly recommended operatic
recital on VIC-1409) and Mar-
garet Matzenauer. I've always
felt that Matzenauer was by far
the greatest of the three in her
combination of an opulent voice
with incredible coloratura-like
agility throughout its w i d e
range, dramatic temperament,
and impeccable musical taste.
It's a crime that RCA, which
holds the masters of her finest
recordings, has never seen fit
to issue an LP survey of her art.
Are you listening, Victrola?
Schumann-Heink, on the oth-
er hand, didn't lack the great
voice, range, dramatic flair or
agility of Matzenauer, it was
only musical taste that she of-
ten left by the wayside. Schu-
mann-Heink's healthy vim-and-
vigor approach to singing more
than occasionally gave way to
vulgarity in the same fashion
that Caruso's singing did, show-
ing off an admittedly magnifi-
cent pair of human vocal cords.
The unexpected overly-long held
tones, t h e displaced octave
leaps, and the awkwardly in-
terpolated cadenzas, although
they were frequently at odds
with musical sense, were (and
still are on VIC-1409) tremen-
dously exciting, and forced the
listener to overlook human frail-
ties.
Homer, however, opted to
join opulence of voice with fine
musicianship while eschewing_
dramatic fire and showy exhi-
bitionism. H i g h l1y respected
back in the Age of Innocence as
a symbol of Motherhood (com-
plete with six kids and doting
husband), her rich and mellowI
voice was often tinged with an
air of matronliness. Thus se-
lections on this disc which fare
best are those requiring sustain-
ed, lush intonation: "Che faro"
from Gluck's Orfeo, and t h e
three arias from Saint-Saens'
Samson. The lack of any great
degree of dramatic fervor in
her singing cuts down on the
effectiveness of selections from
Aida and Trovatore. Humor,
though, was one tempermental
quality which Homer could get
across, so that the two duets
from Humperdinck's Hansel and
Gretel with Alma Gluck are ut-
terly charming in t h e i r una-
bashed wit and h i g h spirits.
Curiously enough, the most dra-
matically effective and passion-
ate singing to be found on this
disc is in the final selection, "O
thou that tellest good tidings to
Zion" from. Handel's Messiah.
Sincere in its religiosity, Ho-
mer's interpretation had genu-!
ine conviction as opposed to the
saccharine sanctimoniousness
which generally passes for ora-
torio singing today.

By the way, don't be put off
by the wretchedly homespun
Petticoat Junction-type p r o-
gram notes which one of Ho-
mer's daughters wrote for this
reissue. If talk of Motherhood,
Home and Apple Pie makes you
sick to your stomach, I'd ad-
vise you to paste some paper ov-
er the liner notes while enjoy-
ing the great singing this disc
offers.
Before closing, some general
comments on overall quality of
the Victrola discs. In terms of
sound quality, these Victrola vo-
cal reissues have been transfer-
red to LP honestly, without ar-
tificial echo-chamber effects or
electronic stereo trickery. The
resulting sound is superior to
RCA's older Camden series,
while far outdistancing Odys-
sey's electronic stereo reproces-
sing, certain Seraphim reissues
plagued by artificial amplifica-
tion, and earlier unfortunate fo-
rays into the electronic stereo
market by Victrola itself. One
big deficiency in the Victrola
series is RCA's' failure to pro-
vide texts and translations to
songs and arias, which Angel
has consistently done on Sera-
phim. Victrola makes up f o r
this failing, however, by pro-
viding better quality pressings,
with, a drastically lower level of
surface noise than Seraphim.
Yet, I must warn the prospec-
tive buyer that the more recent
COME TO
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RESTAURANT
Fine Food
Chops, Steaks, & Shrimp 1
Soul Food Home Cooked
Open Pit Barbeque
-Open-
6 a.m. till 9 p.m.-Mon.-Thurs.
6 a.m. till 3 a.m.-Fri.-St.
8 a.m. till 7:30 p.m.-Sunday
730 NORTH MAIN
Delivery and Catering
769-2330
We're in debt
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health
services,
life saving
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he
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TheAmei=n Red Ov=
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Victrolas have all the backbone
and stamina of an Aunt Jemi-
ma pancake (or, if you prefer, a
soggy pizza). It is the first time
since I started collecting records
some 15 years ago that I was
afraid to leave a record outside
of its cardboard jacket lest it
ooze all over t h e floor. The
sound quality from these newer,
"flexible" pressings isn't notice-
able inferior to their sturdier
forbears, and although I d i d
note some clicks and pops here
and there, they still have quiet-
er surfaces than the run-of-the-
mill Seraphim. Only time and
repeated playings will tell how
well they actually hold up. At
least one thing is certain: they
won't warp. After all, have you
ever seen a warped pancake?,
Haircuts that
don't look
like haircuts
TRY US-
DASCOLA
U-M BARBERS
E. Univ. off South U.

l
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t z
f/ Yt
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;. .

Free form "Wet Look" vinyl bag
chairs are the most revolutionary thing
in furniture design in 2000 years!
This far out chair adapts to the shape
of your body-whatever shape it's in.
Really hip student size chair makes a
cozy recliner for 2 people too! Can also
be used as a king-size pillow or a soft-
ball for jolly green giants. It's stuffed
with pounds of virgin poly styrene. And
it's portable ,too.
You can have this plump bag Pf
squishiness in Beautiful Black, Flame
Red or Sunny Yellow.
Best of all, it won't take all your
bread, just a paltry thirty-six bucks
-(freight prepaid). It'll probably adapt to
your pocketbook. If not, just lay this
ad on your old man before national
S. Claus Day. Allow a couple of weeks
for delivery.
rwe
I Mail to: BAGLAND 1
1970 Valley View Rd.
I Northbrook, Ill. 60062
I Name
Address
City State - ZIP.

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Imagine skiing the "Gentle Giant,"
Jackson Hole, with Suzy Chaffee
and Pepi Steigler. It's part of
SALOMON SKI BINDING'S
special college contest. Includes
round-trip air fare from your
hometown to Jackson Hole,
room, all meals, lift tickets, lessons
and a free pair of SALOMON SKI
BINDINGS! Glamorous former
U.S. Ski Team member Suzy and
Olympic gold medalist Pepi will
be there for personal instruction
or just fun-skiing. Enter today.
SALOMON BINDING "SKIWEEK"
CONTEST RULES
It's easy I Just write a funny caption for this
whacky Bob Cram cartoon. Use "SALOMON
BINDINGS" in the caption somewhere and mail
to us along with the cartoon, your name, address
and ski dealer. Enter as many times as you like.
contest closes midnight December 31, 1970. En-
tries will be judged on the basis of originality and
humor and remain the property of A & T Ski
Company. Top runner-up entries will receive free
SALOMON BINDINGS.

/1
I \
qc
rr
,I
*Be sure to use SALOMON BINDINGS within your caption. I
Name
AddressI
City State Zip
College
Name of your Ski Dealer_
Mail entries to:I
SALOMON COLLEGE CONTEST, A & T SKI COMPANY
1725 Westlake Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 98109
S ..lo ..n-

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SALOMON SKI BINDINGS
"they hold till you really have to leave

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A &' Ski Comp~any
A Fuqua Industry

5 .. ..____________________ _ ---.--t~1

Rent your
Roommate with
a Classified Ad
PRE-CHANUKAH
SALE
S.B.S. at 1215 S.U.
200% off on new
50% off on used
Starts Man., Dec. 7
STUDENT
BOOK
SERVICE
For the student body:
LEVI'S'
CORDUROY
Slim Fits ...$6.98
(All Colors)
DENIM
M..nL. I--P Tin n

I WILDFLOWER
AT LEAST
EVERYTHING IN THE STORE'
(CHECK OUT OUR 50c HATS)
WILDFLOWER
LAST 2 DAYS Fri. & Sat. only 516E.DWillia
y 516 E. William
Hi-Fl BUYS IS SANTA 'S
STEREO WORKSHOP
OUR ELVES HAVE BEEN WORKING ALL YEAR MAKING AC-
CESSORIES FOR STEREO SYSTEMS WHICH MAKE PERFECT
GIFTS FOR ANY STEREO LOVER. WE HAVE:
STEREO HEADPHONES DIGITAL CLOCK RADIOS
TAPE CLEANING KITS GIFT TAPE PACKAGES
CARTRIDGE CARRIERS PRE-RECORDED TAPES
CASSETTE STORAGE CASES RECORD CLEANING KITS
'TTTVCI2 AR PRT TT A 1-XVrT wn PT' 7 ThV7 q T'AC ' (W ACCT.CqR TI C

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WORSHIP

FIRST UNITED METHODIST
CHURCH AND WESLEY-
FOUNDATION
State at Huron and Washingtn
Church-662-4536
Weslev-668-6881
Dr. Hoover Rupert, Minister
Bartlett Beavin, Campus Minister
R. Edward McCracken, Campus Minister
9:30 and 11:00 a.m.-Sermon by Dr. Hoover
Rupert: "When Love Gets in the Way."
Broadcast WNRS 1290, WNRZ 103 fm, 11:00
to noon.
WESLEY FOUNDATION NEWS:
Sunday, Dec. 6, 6:00 p.m. - Dinner, Pine
Room; 7:00 p.m .-Tree-trimming Party,
Wesley Lounge.
CAMPUS CHAPEL
(Corner of Forest; and Washtenaw)
Minister: Rev. Donald Postema
10:00 a.m.-"Freedom." Sacrament of Holy
Baptism.
6:00 p.m.-Sacrament of Holy Communion.
7:00 p.m.-Supper.
7:30 p.m.-Nigeria-slides and talk by Mr.
Al Reberq, recently returned from two years
in Nigeria.
UNITY OF ANN ARBOR
310 S. State St
Phone 663-4314
Marlyn William White, Minister
Ron Johnson, Associate Minister

LUTHERAN STUDENT CHAPEL
A.L.C.-L.C.A.
801 S. Forest
Donald G. Zill, Pastor
SUNDAY
9:30 a.m.-Holy Communion.
11:00 a.m.-Morning Worship.
1:00 p.m.-Folk Mass (Holy Communion).
5:30 p.m.-Service of the Catacombs (Holy
Communion).
7 :00 p.m.-Supper.
Wednesdoy, 7:00 p.m.-Hay-ride and Sleep-
in!
Thursday, 10:00 p.m.-Service of the Cata-
combs (Holy Communion).
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
On the Campus-
Corner State and William Sts.
Rev. Terry N. Smith, Senior Minister
Rev. Ronald C. Phillips, Assistant
Worship Services at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.-
"The Innkeeper-A Wiseman," Rev. Terry
N. Smith.
BETHLEHEM UNITED
CHURCH OF CHRIST
423 S. Fourth Ave.
Telephone 665-6149
Miristers: T. L. Trost, Jr., R. E. Simonson
Worship Services at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m.
Church School at 9:00 a.m.
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
1 A1O AWnch.t.,A vp

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST,
SCIENTIST
1833 Washtenaw Ave.
SUNDAY
10:30 a m.-Worship Services, Sunday School
(2-20 years).
WEDNESDAY
8:00 a m.-Testimonv Meeting.
Infants room available Sunday and Wednesday
Public Reading Room, 306 E. Liberty St. -
Mon., 10-9; Tues.-Sat., 10-5. Closed Sun-
days and Holidays.
"The Bible Speaks to You," Radio WAAM,
1600. Sunday. 8':45 a.m.
For transportation call 662-0813.
HURON HILLS BAPTIST CHURCH
3 150 Glacier Way
Pastor: Charles Johnson
For information, -transportation, personalized
help, etc., phone 769-6299 or 761-6749.
ST. ANDREWS EPISCOPAL CHURCH
306 N. Division
8:00 a.m.-Holy Communion.
10:00:a.m.-Holy Communion.
7:00 p m.-Evening Prayer.

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UNIVERSITY LUTHERAN CHAPEL
(The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod)
1 511 Washtenow Ave. i
Alfred T. Scheios, Pastor
Sunday at 9:30 and at 11:00 a.m.-Worship
Services.

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