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ML 5163 NOEL COWARD IN

I LIKE AMERICA

LOUISA

HALF-CASTE WOMAN

I WENT TO A MARVELOUS PARTY

TIME AND AGAIN

WHY MUST THE SHOW GO ON

NEW YORK MEDLEY: Let’s Say Goodbye Teach Me to Dance Like Grandma We Were Dancing Sigh No More Zigeuner You Were There Nevermore I’ll See You Again

NEW YORK

WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO THE TOTS

SAIL AWAY

WAIT A BIT, JOE

20th CENTURY BLUES

I WONDER WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM

THE PARTY'S OVER NOW

Orchestra Direction, Piano Accompaniment and Arrangements by Peter Matz

ML 5163

COLUMBIA MASTERWORKS

INTRODUCING NOEL COWARD by Goddard Lieberson

(Note: The following introduction was written by Mr. Lieberson for Noel Coward At Las Vegas, ML 5063, the first of what is to be a series of records recorded at the celebrated spas, nerve centers and watering places of the world.) ■ Mr. Noel Coward has not yet, as far as I know, made any contribution to the science of nuclear physics. Indeed, this is one of the few remaining fields of endeavour in which Mr. Coward has not exercised his talents, but I am quite sure that all of us would have a much more cheerful feeling about the atomic age if he had.

It is senseless to attempt to give any biographical data on Noel Coward. He was born and apparently began at once to write plays, compose songs, sing, act, dance and pos¬ sibly began to write his autobiographies. But all of this, of course, did not (to continue in an atomic mood) explode in this one person without a proper detonation; which was, of course, the remarkably fluid and receptive English stage. Nor is it right to assume that Mr Coward sprang forth out of a void. Quite the contrary. His background (I do not speak of his familial background) represents an extremely rich melange consisting, in part at least, of such splendid influences as the plays of Oscar Wilde, the tradition of the English music halls, the writing of George Moore, Max Beerbohm, Shaw, and Jane Austen, and above all, the extremely rich tapestry of the total British psyche. And though Mr. Coward is certainly unique, and stands alone on the pillars of his talents, he is nonetheless buttressed by this elaborate set of tradition and influences.

This’uniqueness of Mr. Coward’s is, to me, his greatest glory. It derives chiefly, of an ability which is not merely agility, as is so often thought, but rather the product of an innate sense of perception combined with an entirely uninhibited gift for expression. He has, through the years, made certain little philosophical discoveries which stand him in good stead: for instance, that suavity can be shocking, or that lucidity is the ultimate insanity, just as insanity is the ultimate lucidity. He also knows, with pin¬ point accuracy, the most vulnerable spot of any hypocritical situation. Even in his songs, which are our chief concern at this moment, all of these qualities are exhibited, with the addition of that soothing, saving, balm, genuine sentiment. For with all of the crackling, electric, sophisticated output of Mr. Coward, he does have, sentimental though it may seem, what we are told these days we must all have a “lot” of-(or were when this was first written)—heart. It is this, in fact, which is his most endearing quality, whether his public recognizes it or not; and, in fact, his ability to prevent his public from recognizing this quality while enjoying it is yet another of his talents.

Finally, Mr. Coward must be proclaimed, hurrayed and celebrated as “the great professional.” He possesses, more than any other artist I know, that indestructible quality of knowing his job so well that even the smallest detail is polished to its full potential. In a Coward performance, nothing goes unrealized, and much becomes alive which with another performer might remain moribund. While I have heard many things said about Noel Coward during the years that I have known him, never has it been said that he was boring. In this mechanical age of largesse, where ennui can reach gigantic proportions, could anything finer be said of a creative and performing artist?

H “I have only had two music lessons in

my life,” Noel Coward wrote for the dust

jacket of Simon and Schuster’s “Noel Cow¬

ard Song Book. “These were the first steps

of what was to have been a full course at

the Guildhall School of Music, and they

faltered and stopped when I was told by my

instructor that I could not use consecutive

man called Ebenezer Prout had announced

many years ago that consecutive fifths were

wrong and must in no circumstances be em¬

ployed. At that time Ebenezer Prout was

merely a name to me (as a matter of fact

he still is, and a very funny one at that)

and I was unimpressed by his Victorian

dicta. I argued back that Debussy and

Ravel used consecutive fifths like mad. My

instructor waved aside this triviality "with a

pudgy hand, and I left his presence forever

with the parting shot that what was good

enough for Debussy and Ravel was good

enough for me.” Being steadfastly “unimpressed by Vic¬

torian dicta” was, it seems, destined to be

a more integral part of Mr. Coward’s fabu¬

lous career than any conceivable amount of

music training he might have acquired. And

in the end, even if he had graduated with his

weight in diplomas, one feels he would have

immediately turned to putting on paper the

kind of enchanting and peculiarly telling

songs that are so markedly his. Not what

Ravel or Debussy would have written, but

splendid enough in wit and finesse to match

anything put on paper in Montmartre.

Twenty of his “opera” are here, eight

of them in the New York Medley. In the

geography of Noel Coward, New York is

next to London, which is half a day from

anywhere. And so, in New York, he sings

of India and gypsy life and the rolling seas.

The world he sings about he carries with

him, and if this is called Noel Coward in New

York it is because New York is where he

lifts today’s particular cup of tea (and where

Goddard Lieberson records him).

|3 I Like America, he reassures us, recalling

a ditty composed for “Ace of Clubs,” a 1950

production in which the action was laid

chiefly in a Soho night club. “The story,”

Mr. Coward remembers, “was full of gang¬

sters, black marketeers, tough chorus girls,

stolen jewellery, etc.” This may or may not

explain why America is liked here for its less

orthodox virtues. Louisa is the sad tale of a movie queen

who finds no joy in Oscars; nor in Bills,

Henrys, Georges, or Davids, either.

Half-Caste Woman came from one of Mr.

Coward’s few flops, “Cochran’s 1931 Revue”.

Then Helen Morgan sang it in New York

in another failure. Mr. C’s reasonable re¬

mark: “I don’t think, on the whole, that

poor Half-Caste Woman ever had a fair deal.”

I Went to a Marvelous Party is from 1939’s

“Set to Music." There actually was a pro¬

totype party, in the south of France in 1937

or 8, which inspired this extraordinary

account. Time and Again is a frank confession of

human fallibility arranged as a permanent

and on the whole rather enjoyable system.

Why Must the Show Go On, which con¬

cludes side one, dares question the very

foundation of our theatre’s most courage¬

ous, if rigidly self-imposed, tradition.

B The New York Medley includes Let’s Say

Goodbye from “Words and Music”; Teach

Me to Dance Like Grandma from “This

Year of Grace”; We Were Dancing from

“Tonight at Eight-thirty”; Sigh No More

from “Sigh No More”; Zigeuner from “Bit¬

ter Sweet”; You Were There from “Tonight

at Eight-thirty”; Nevermore from “Conver¬

sation Piece”; I’ll See You Again from

“Bitter Sweet”; and just the tail of Mad

Dogs and Englishmen. What’s Going to Happen to the Tots is a

frighteningly graphic musical question first

posed on the CBS-TV Noel Coward and

Mary Martin show “Together with Music.”

Sail Away is another recollection from

“Ace of Clubs.” Wait a Bit, Joe, coming from “Sigh No

More,” pleads for just a little caution.

20th Century Blues, from “Cavalcade,”

rues the whole bloody hundred years.

I Wonder What Happened to Him, also

known as the “Indian Army Officer,” is an

hilarious item from “Sigh No More.”

Via The Party’s Over Now Mr. C. bids you

a sad, but quite temporary, adieu. Notes by Charles Burr

■ Other Columbia “Lp” records featuring

Noel Coward include: Saint-Saens: The Carnival of the Ani¬

mals. ML 4355. Coward: Conversation Piece. SL-163.

Noel Coward at Las Vegas. ML 5063.

V „ „ If he w 'chestra direction, Pi,„

Arrangements bj

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