SOUNDS AND VIEWS: Carol of The Bells (Part 2) (12/26/76)

SOUNDS AND VIEWS

by Roman Sawycky

Carol of The Bells

(Part 2)

At our request, P. Wilhousky described the origin of the 1936 "Carol of the Bells" in a letter from Westport, Connecticut, dated December 28, 1973:

"I had heard it (i.e. Shchedryk) sung by a Ukrainian choir and somehow obtained a manuscript copy. At about that time I needed a short number to fill out a program I was asked to do for the Walter Damrosch Music Appreciation Hour with my high school choir. Since the youngsters would not sing in Ukrainian I had to compose a text in English. I discarded the Ukrainian text about 'shchedryk' - (the barnyard fowl) and instead concentrated on the merry tinkle of the bells which I heard in the music.

"After the broadcast many schools and colleges wrote in asking where they could obtain printed copies of the Carol of the Bells. My friends urged me to submit the number to a publisher - which I did - namely G. Schirmer. My manuscript was returned after two months with regrets.

Best Seller

"A week or two later a salesman from Carl Fischer came to visit me at my school. He said his company would like to have my music in their catalogue and asked if I had any compositions or arrangements they could publish...I took out the rejected manuscript of Carol of the Bells and frankly told him how it was received. He took the copy and phoned me the next day that they would print it. Needless to say, it has been a best seller ever since. There was no need to push it - it just grew. My motive was never commercial. I just wanted to introduce good music. You say that the original version is slightly different from the one I used. I should like to see the original some day to note the difference.

"As you probably know, I retired from the New York School System nine years ago after 42 years of service - I served as Director of Music the last 12 years. From 1944 to 1949 I served on the side of Toscanini at NBC. Incidentally, he did not know the Carol of the Bells although he may have heard it later when Bob Shaw's Chorale sang carols outside his home in Riverdale."

The Carol Arrives

Complying with his request, I forwarded the original Leontovych version to Mr. Wilhousky and he acknowledged the difference in the finale of his score. New York's Carl Fischer printed "Carol of the Bells" with the subtitle "Ukrainian Christmas Carol." Credits went to M. Leontovych (music) and to Peter J. Wilhousky (arr. and text). The "arr." can be explained by the piano or organ part closely derived from Leontovych, designated "for rehearsal only."

Just as the song "Oy ne khody Hrytsiu" ("Yes My Darling Daughter") became the first big hit of Dinah Shore, so did "Carol of the Bells" establish Wilhousky with the Fischer firm which was later to print his arrangements of "Battle Hymn of the Republic," "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and other famous numbers.

The 1936 Fischer printing made "Carol of the Bells" into a song 'heard round the world' and from that point the carol rang with a merry life of its own with more rearrangements and recordings than any other work of Ukrainian origin. Besides the mentioned French remake, the carol is also known in England as "Christmas Bells."

Today there are at least five different printings, each one noting the carol's Ukrainian origin. Most numerous are the recordings, over 50, several of which give erroneous data on the carol's identity.

Among performers Arthur Fiedler, the Robert Shaw Chorale and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir recorded the Wilhousky version. But dozens of other groups each with a style of its own further adapted the carol. As in the blues, the simplicity of the basic motif offered endless possibilities in a wide range of music making.

Orchestral versions include those by Eugene Ormandy, Carmen Dragon and Leonard Bernstein (his is a joyful tour de force), while the David Randolph Singers relied more on chamber atmosphere. The carol was performed and recorded by the Swingle Singers, Johnny Mathis, glee clubs, pop orchestras, organs, chimes, the electronic Moog machine, for a champagne commercial, i.e. by ensembles varying both in quality and purpose.

Hymn to Life

Nevertheless, there is something symbolic in the number and vitality of these arrangements, living boisterous life of their own. There is something in their sheer fertility that echoes the nature of the original carol - a hymn to life.

And now during the Bicentennial still more publications and recordings continue radiating this singular contribution to Christmas.

Such is the destiny of one godly bird emerging from an ancient creed, a destiny and fortune of a swallow whose chatter became music for millions.

(The End).

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