ROBERT SHAW CHORALE
The Robert Shaw Chorale was a professional choir founded in New York City in 1948 by Robert Shaw, a Californian who had been drafted out of college a decade earlier by Fred Waring to conduct his glee club in radio broadcasts. The Chorale enjoyed an intermittent existence, being formed and re-formed on an ad hoc basis for national and international tours and RCA recordings, its personnel count ranging from around thirty to around sixty voices depending on repertoire requirements. During its existence, the Robert Shaw Chorale became arguably the best-known and most widely respected professional choral organization in the United States, with repertoire ranging from J.S. Bach to folk music and Broadway theatre tunes. The group’s album recording Christmas Hymns And Carols released in November 1957 was certified gold in August 1964 by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). (More from Wikipedia)
In addition to Each One Heard in His Own Language, I can probably count the number of choral albums in my collection on one hand, though they include some of my all-time favorites. The album Little Drummer Boy by the Harry Simeone Chorale is one; this is where most people heard one of my favorite Christmas songs, “Little Drummer Boy” for the first time, though the song (originally called “Carol of the Drum” and written in 1941 by Katherine Kennicott Davis) had previously been recorded by the Trapp Family Singers. Then there is Christmas Hymns and Carols by the Robert Shaw Chorale, the Christmas album passed down from my parents that we always played while we decorated the Christmas tree. I finally got a second copy of the album for them – a reissue on Pickwick Records called Joy to the World – when I couldn’t bear the numerous skips any longer, though Mom and Dad still usually got out the old one.
(September 2014)
