专辑简介

In Britain, the name Knightsbridge can apply to the Knightsbridge Barracks where the Bodyguards to the Queen and the national treasures are stationed. In America, too, the name Knightsbridge is synonymous with national treasures. These treasures are America’s folk songs, presented herein by The Knightsbridge Strings And The Knightsbridge Chorale. It is interesting to note that practically all the selections contained in ‘Songs Of America, Vol. 2’ were written at the same time as the reign of one British queen – Queen Victoria. Historically, the album leads off with 'Yankee Doodle', a song that originated more than a half-century before Victoria’s reign, when the Yankees were ousting the Redcoats in the American Revolution. The interpretation by The Knightsbridge Strings conveys the humor and vitality so prevalent in tunes of that era. 'Yankee Doodle', incidentally, is one of the few patriotic songs to become a folk song. When America moved westward, so did the songs. People back East began to hear about the easier life over the mountains, particularly in a song that promised wealth and honor and advertised the charms of Illinois. Eventually these songs were carried around the world by sailors’ sea chanties, a favorite one being the purely American song stemming from “Across The Wide Missouri” – 'Shenandoah'. The Knightsbridge Chorale joins the Strings in the latter two selections, which are chronologically followed by the strictly instrumental tune written in 1852, the lively jig, 'Arkansas Traveller'. From the multitude of songs poduced during the Civil War period, The Knightsbridge Strings offer the popular 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home', written in 1863 by ‘Louis Lambert,’ a pseudonym for Pat Gilmore, official bandmaster of the Union Army. The post-war period brought about, among other things, a boom in the cattle business. The popularity of the cowboy rose to new heights and so did the song, 'Red River Valley', performed here by The Knightsbridge Chorale. Another song that first appeared at this time, in 1878 to be exact, was the imperishable 'Carry Me Back To Old Virginny'. In their rendition, The Knightsbridge Strings capture the instinctive appeal and nostalgic yearning that the wanderer feels for his distant home. The dawn of the “Gaslight Era” brought forth many new favorites which soon entered the realm of folk entries. 'Clementine', widely thought to have originated in the days of the “forty-niners,” was actually an 1883 innovation and remains to this day one of the few American folk tunes in which the heroine is burlesqued and caricatured. The Knightsbridge Chorale pays homage to 'Clementine' and to a song considered by many as America’s second national anthem, 'America, The Beautiful'. The music for the latter was originally a hymn tune written in 1887 by Samuel Augustus Ward. The words were put down six years later by Katherine Lee Bates, as she stood at the summit of Pike’s Peak and gazed at the “spacious skies” and “purple mountains.” Another “national” favorite was composed a year later, as the immortal municipal tribute to 'The Sidewalks Of New York' came to life in Gotham’s music halls in 1895. With this colorful “classic,” The Knightsbridge Strings close more than a century of beloved American folk tunes. The reign of Queen Victoria ended six years later.