Americana for Solo Winds and Strings

This Mercury LP celebrates the conservative but highly attractive music of the composers associated with Howard Hanson at the Eastman School - with the notable addition of Aaron Copland, in what may be the only recording of Copland's music led by Hanson.

The delightful and striking cover seems to pay homage to Copland's "Quiet City," and perhaps Kent Kennan's "Night Soliloquy." An alternative cover used for an EP issue (below) switches to a rural motif more in keeping with the conductor's "Pastorale."

A few words about the lesser known composers:

Kennan

Keller

Kent Kennan, an Eastman School graduate, spent most of his life teaching, but he was an active composer earlier in his career and near the end of his life. He wrote a few widely used instructional books.

Rogers Barlow

Homer Keller was another product of the Eastman School. He wrote three symphonies and spent much time teaching.

Bernard Rogers was head of Eastman's composition department for several decades.

Wayne Barlow earned undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees from Eastman, then taught there for many years. "The Winter's Past" is also known as "The Winter's Passed" - either makes sense.

The recordings were made in October 1952 and May 1953. The sound is good.