Something from the Seaside

Something about the weather here in the UK that is making me long for the sunny seaside, the band playing, ice cream, sea washing across the pebbles, gently nodding off in a deck chair - bliss. 

Gustav Holst

Marching Song from Two songs without words 
Op. 22/2  [H. 88/2], 1906

Julius Harrison

 A Song of Adoration - Romance, 1930

Hastings Municipal Orchestra

Conducted by Julius Harrison 

Decca K 602

[KA1-4 & KA2-4]
Recorded: Saturday 14th February 1931

2 Flac files in a .rar file, Here at Mediafire. [about 21Mb]

Hastings, White Rock Pavilion

Issued in time for the November 1931 issue of the gramophone the reviewer clearly enjoyed the recording:


'This orchestra develops and records well, under its new conductor. Its force is not large—about 35, I believe—and it makes a very good show. Holst's piece is not very often heard. It is one of the pair in op. 22 (1906), and contains a first-rate humable tune, well bound with honest British wrapping. The conductor's own song is a sensitive addition to the store of good light pieces, which we should be grateful to hear oftener. This composer's suite of Worcestershire Pieces would make a capital recording item, and so would his Widdicombe Fair humoresque for quartet. We are apt to forget how many good British writers remain unrecorded.'

I think there is enough information on the web about both Holst and Harrison so I won't add to it here but stick to the recordings. 

Gustav Holst

The sides are somewhat over recorded, and acoustics in the pavilion for an orchestral group of 35 is quite reverberant. The pressing material that Decca used  hasn't helped with the dub but so I have left quite a lot of hiss in. The Matrix number are the first of a brief series which began in 1931 and seem to have been designated for recordings outside London. The 10 and 12 inch matrices were consecutively numbered  with the letter suffix KA for 12 inch and KB for 10 inch recordings.  These two sides were first recorded on Thursday, 8th January 1931. I think the first takes would have been tests for acoustics of the building as only 3 sides were cut that day. The recording engineers turned up again on Thursday, 12th February 1931 to do a run of 30 sides over two days. Being take -4 I think these two side may have been cut on Saturday, 14th February 1931. The Take numbers read KA1-4C and KA1-4C – I do not know what the 'C' suffix actually means as I have also seen DJ, AJ, AX, AXX, AXXX, and can only think they must be to do with the equipment used or the recording engineer, anyone out there know how to decode this? 

Julius Harrison

One other thing is the title of the Harrison piece is given as A Song of Adoration - Romance on the published score nut somehow got reversed on the label, maybe the Decca people thought it would be more marketable.