Songs of the Earth is an unusual title for this Klavier release featuring Col. Lowell Graham and the United States Air Force Band, especially as the cover image is a picture taken from the vantage point of pointing skyward. Inside, Graham explains that the title is derived from the use of folk-based melody in several of the pieces featured here, including works by Percy Grainger, Albert Roussel, Ottorino Respighi, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Robert Russell Bennett. William Byrd is given as composer of the eponymous William ...
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Songs of the Earth is an unusual title for this Klavier release featuring Col. Lowell Graham and the United States Air Force Band, especially as the cover image is a picture taken from the vantage point of pointing skyward. Inside, Graham explains that the title is derived from the use of folk-based melody in several of the pieces featured here, including works by Percy Grainger, Albert Roussel, Ottorino Respighi, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Robert Russell Bennett. William Byrd is given as composer of the eponymous William Byrd Suite, even though this rightfully should be considered the work of the modest composer who compiled and orchestrated some, Gordon Jacob. Songs of the Earth begins with a very unusual piece, almost alien sounding in the context of its time, The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare. This is done very well, as is Grainger's wind band masterwork Lincolnshire Posy, although the performance of the latter is unlikely to unseat one's favorite in this oft-recorded work. Roussel's A Glorious Day,...
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