[78-L] New World Ballads

[David Lennick]

DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
> dl wrote:  
> 
> I wonder if Westhill (West Hill?) High School would 
> have the faintest idea that these artifacts even exist from nearly 70 years 
> ago? It's in a part of Scarborough where I'd just as soon not get out of the 
> car, not being dressed for the occasion (no hoodie, no knife).
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
> 
> There are a number of Westhill High Schools around.  For some reason I had the feeling that this one was in Montreal, perhaps because Mount Royal is mentioned in one of the songs.  
> 
> Does anyone have a Victor number directory which would indicate the contents of records 130847 and 130848?
> 
> db
Looks as if there are in fact 4 discs, with parts 7 & 8 also by the Alumnae 
Choir of Toronto. Leslie Bell isn't credited as conductor but is shown as the 
arranger on parts 5-8, with Irwin Cooper shown as arranger on parts 1-4, so he 
might be the conductor of the other group. J. Murray Gibbon is shown as 
composer on all. Whether the TO choir recorded in Montreal or Toronto is up for 
grabs..if the sound is terrible, it could have been recorded in Montreal via a 
line from the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, which was used for some other 
Canadian Victor and Bluebird sides around 1940.

 From the 1941 Canadian Victor catalogue:

130845: New World Ballads Pts. 1 & 2 (Westhill High School Singers)
	A: Our Old Montreal/Who are the Heroes?/Jacques Cartier
	B: Stout Champlain/Madame Hébert/Coureurs de Bois
130846: New World Ballads Pts. 3 & 4 (Westhill High School Singers)
	A: A Legend of the Saguenay/Frontenac/The Fur Brigade
	B: La Salle/The Plains of Abraham/David Thompson
130849: New World Ballads Pts. 5 & 6 (Alumnae Choir of Toronto)
	A: On the Cool Atlantic Shore/Song of Acadia/Tom Talbot
	B: Henry Hudson/Shadowy Footpath
130850: New World Ballads Pts. 7 & 8 (Alumnae Choir of Toronto)
	A: River Song/Indian File/Hushabye
	B: Jenny Trip, Trip, Trip/Canning Song/Snowflakes

dl