Songs of the World

If you already know what a superb singing group the Harvard Glee Club is, it will probably do you no harm to buy "Songs of the World." Representing "a musical trip around the world conceived as the result of the world tour of the Harvard Glee Club in the summer of 1961," the medley explores a range of musical diversity from Cambridge to Newton. No matter what predigested national musical stereotypes it in-herits, the Glee Club manages to reduce stylistic distinctions to Standard Average European. But if you like the meaty sounds of those well-fed Harvard boys--I do--this record is great fun.

Last of the twenty works on the record, Randall Thompson's Last Words of David receives a dramatic and impressive performance. In the style the Glee Club knows best, this setting of a text from the Book of Samuel contrasts in intensity with most of the folksongs on the record: it carries more of the excitement and tension of a live performance than any of the other numbers.

Side One swings around the Far East. Nippon Bashi, one of three songs representing Japan, exploits the Glee Club's ability to get louder very slowly and gradually, over a long period of time--a sort of basso "Bolero." The Club stops (musically) in Korea, China, The Philippines, and Thailand, but it sounds as if it has never escaped the office of G. Schirmers in New York. Only the Indian anthem by Sir Rabindranath Tagore, Khoro Bayu Boy Bege ("The Optimist Against Odds") breaks loose: a vigorous unison from start to stop suggests the musically muscular Soviet Army Chorus, with which, incidentally, the Glee Club compares quite favorably. Before covering Italy, Germany, France, and England on Side Two, the Club creates a various and delightful performance of Bela Bartok's Five Slovak Folksongs.

Despite the claim by Carillon Records that this is a high. fidelity recording, some of the techniques are not too refined: several pieces end with a thwop where the sound cuts off, and the piano occasionally sounds tin-plated.

But Elliot Forbes leads his boys to triumph, even over the Victor Company of Japan, which did the recording. Listen to the record a few times to become familiar with all the well-known folksongs; it's almost as good as a live Glee Club performance. On its own musical terms, the Harvard Glee Club is really a virtuoso group.