"Jesus came from the courthouse door": "General William Booth Enters into Heaven" and other, variously irresistible Ives songs

SUNDAY NOONISH UPDATE: Internet Archive seems to have recovered from its outage, so we're back in business.
MONDAY EVENING UPDATE: For "afterthoughts" on the performances
of "General William Smith Enters into Heaven," there's now an "afterpost."

Donald Gramm (1927-1983)  [photo by Christian Steiner]

. . . (Are you washed in the blood, in the blood of the Lamb,
in the blood of the Lamb, the Lamb, of the Lamb, the Lamb?)

Jesus came from the courthouse door,
stretched his hands above the passing poor.
Booth saw not, but led his queer ones,
round and round, round and round and round,
[or: "round and round the mighty courthouse square,"]
and round, and round and round, and round and round . . .

-- text from the Vachel Lindsay poem
"General William Booth Enters into Heaven"

Donald Gramm, bass-baritone; Richard Cumming, piano. Desto, recorded c1964

Donald Gramm, bass-baritone; Donald Hassard, piano. From their Town Hall (New York City) recital of Feb. 24, 1976

Nathan Gunn, baritone; Kevin Murphy, piano. EMI-Warner Classics, recorded in St. Mary's Church, Highgate, London, Mar. 31-Apr. 2, 1998

"Post tease" afterthought: If you listened to the performances of Suppé's Fatinitza Overture in last week's "post tease," did any particular word come to mind?

I did provide notice in the above-mentioned "post tease" ("Well, why shouldn't we listen to the [at very rough guess] 8th- or 9th-best Suppé overture?") that I'd be asking the above-posed question.

In its day, Suppé's now-largely-forgotten operetta
Fatinitza was a sort of international sensation.

IN CASE IT'D HELP TO HEAR THE PERFORMANCES AGAIN
(THIS TIME WITH SOME COMPACT DESCRIPTIVE NOTES) --

FRANZ VON SUPPÉ: Fatinitza: Overture


Zestful and pungent: Hungarian State Orchestra, János Sándor, cond. From a Hungaroton-Laserlight CD of Suppé overtures

Classy, possibly even elegant: Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Charles Dutoit, cond. From a Decca CD of Suppé overtures
Frothy, breathless, maybe downright lickety-split: Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, cond. From the Boston Pops' RCA sequel LP More Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music

MAX SCHÖNHERR (arr.): 'Marziale' [i.e., a "martial" or military-ish piece] on themes from the operetta 'Fatinitza'

Always dependably musical: Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Järvi, cond. From a Chandos super-CD (89 minutes' worth!) of Suppé

by Ken

Before we proceed, I note that on the AllMusic website James Reel has gone to some length to describe the Overture for us. While we may quibble with some of the details ("like a chicken clucking"?), I think we have to applaud the effort.

The shining star of Viennese operetta in the 1860s, Suppé was temporarily eclipsed at the beginning of the next decade by the emergence of the younger Johann Strauss as a stage composer. Suppé returned to public favor in 1876 with Fatinitza, an operetta set during the 1854-1855 Russo-Turkish war; the libretto, ironically, was one of Strauss' rejects. The overture begins sternly, with very subtle hints at both military marches and Turkish music without breaking into either. The main theme here is a little march, almost Tyrolean, that sounds like a chicken clucking. One of Suppé's typically tumultuous transitions leads to quiet but fully Turkish music, complete with triangle. The exoticism falls away almost immediately for a grand, romantic theme, although the Turkish march soon returns in full force, leading to more tumult. Another whimsical march arrives, this one sounding like a Russian folk tune. A transition of conventional operetta chugging leads to yet another march, one worthy of the Strausses; this is the work's sprightly hit tune "Vorwärts mit frischem Muth" ("Forward with renewed courage"), which is sometimes played as a separate concert piece.

Okay, back to business! Did you come up with "a" word for the Fatinitza Overture? Probably mine is obvious by now, so rather than tell you, I'm going to play it for you.


A WORD OF WARNING: ONCE THIS MARCH GETS IN
YOUR HEAD, IT MAY NOT BE EASILY GOTTEN OUT