Birthday in Bethlehem, a Christmas Cantata

Each holiday season I share several LPs with you, and invariably one stands out as my favorite. (Last year it was Henri Tomasi's Noël en Provence.) This Christmas my choice is a brief Christmas cantata called Birthday in Bethlehem, a lovely 10-inch LP that surprised me with the quality of its music and performances.

Birthday in Bethlehem takes the form of a father telling his young son the story of Jesus's birth, with celebratory songs interspersed. Decca/London issued the work late in 1950, in the same set of releases as the Westminster Abbey carol collection that formed my last post.

The vintage cover is unhelpful about the provenance of the recording, its participants and its composers, so I delved into their backgrounds for my own edification.

Frank Kingdon

The song lyrics and connecting narrative are the work of Dr. Frank Kingdon, an American author, columnist, political figure and college president. The fine music for the songs is by the team of Gene Bone and Howard Fenton, Americans whose compositions ranged from art songs to pop music. 

Bone and Fenton apparently did not handle the underscoring for the narrative passages. That music appears to be the handiwork of the very young English composer Charles Dakin. His scoring, which is beautifully done, features the saxophone; Dakin later composed a number of works for that instrument.

Musical America Ad, circa 1950

None of these people are well known today. Perhaps the most recognizable name on the cover is the tenor Eugene Conley, who appeared at the Metropolitan Opera for several years in the 1950s. He is coupled with his then-wife, the mezzo Winifred Heidt, who was herself an artist of considerable stature. Their performances here are all that could be wished, combining elegant vocalism, excellent diction and complete sincerity.

Although Conley, Heidt, Kingdon, Bone and Fenton were Americans, the recording was made in London, very likely during the summer of 1950, when the principals were in Europe for appearances. The date is unclear - Birthday in Bethlehem does not appear in the English Decca discography. That document, however, does list Conley and Heidt as recording a set of operatic arias in September 1950, which came out in November as Decca/London LPS 280. That is the next recording in numerical sequence to the Christmas program, so it seems likely that the holiday album was taped at about the same time.

As for the production's provenance, my guess is that the singers brought the project to the record company. It may have called for spoken narration interspersed with the Bone-Fenton songs. The record company, thinking that the narrative required an underscore, then may have contracted with young Dakin to handle that task. But again, that is pure supposition.

However the project came together, the results are impressive. The fine orchestral playing was under the direction of the 31-year-old Norman Del Mar, an English music specialist who was the principal conductor of the Britten-centered English Opera Group. For this LP, he led the "New Symphony Orchestra," a name that Decca/London was applying to freelance ensembles it assembled for recording purposes.

Lionel Murton

I should also cite the highly effective narrator, the English-Canadian actor Lionel Murton, who radiates the appropriate warmth for this seasonal material. There is more information about the participants in the download, along with the usual scans and photos.

While this is not a major work, and despite appearances, is not really aimed at children, it is an affecting piece. It's a shame it has sunk into obscurity.