Volume I: MOZART MOSTLY
1967 - 1990


Franz Schubert

excerpt from Mass in G

This recording represents what is probably my first solo outing as a boy soprano (with an abvious absence of vibrato) and as a member of the Texas Boys Choir. A handful of boys had begun singing at Holy Family Catholic Church that year ($10 a month) and had many wonderful musical experiences. A non-musical experience at this particular Christmas Eve service was when I knocked down my music stand, full of music for the service. After the crash, George Bragg walked over to me and whispered "This is not the Fourth of July..."

The tenor soloist is Gerald Houghton, a former choirboy himself and the bass solos were sung by Charles Austin.

01 Benedictus


American Folk Songs

During the spring of 1968, the Texas Boys Choir traveled to New York to make two LPs for Columbia Masterworks: "This Land is Your Land" (American folk songs arranged by Robert DeCormier) and "What child is This?" (Christmas music with the Gregg Smith Singers accompanied by the great American concert organist, E. Power Biggs).

The sessions were rather long and arduous, most of us, including myself suffering from allergies, a fact I didn't realize until I was an adult. There were many trips to the vending machine which served cups of a yellow liquid named chicken soup.

02 Ching-a-ring chaw
03 Study War No More
04 Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Magic Flute: The role of First Spirit

As a member of the Texas Boys Choir, I sang at the Santa Fe Opera for two seasons: In 1968 in productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute and a concert version of Stravinsky's Perséphone; in 1969, I returned to the same production of The Magic Flute, but as the Second Spirit and I also sang the role of the Shepherd Boy in Puccini's Tosca. As an adult, I returned to the company in 1982 as an Apprentice Artist.

These excerpts from an August 1968 performance are conducted by Robert Baustian and feature Stuart Burrows as Tamino, Benita Valente as Pamina and William Workman as Papageno (Donald Gramm sung Papageno in the first four performances). The role of Second Spirit was sung by Mark Lovelace and Third Spirit was sung by Greg Ulmer.

To this day, I still have my G. Schirmer score (we used the Ruth and Thomas Martin translation - their first one), wrapped in white shelfpaper and all my markings for blocking made when I was 13. In re-listening to this track, I was struck particularly by the volume in the phrase "Oh, were her lover only here!".

05 Act I: No. 8 Finale
06 Act II: No. 16 Trio
07 Act II: No. 21 Finale
08 Act II: Papageno's Farewell


Peter Westmore

Sweet Melancholy

These three very simple songs are to texts by Peter Westmore, a shy British poet that visited the Texas Boys Choir in the late 1960s. Though the texts are meant for an adult to sing, I think their simplicity makes a poignant and somewhat bittersweet effect sung by a boy soprano (hence the title I gave). I believe that the accompanist is Cecil Bailey. Mr. Westmore passed away in 1990.

09 Lord, I am not Worthy
10 Peter Wept
11 All Our Yesterdays


César Franck

Mass in A: Panis angelicus

This selection is a personal favorite of mine and I still remember the moment vividly. The occasion was the wedding of Howard and Karen Walsh in Dallas, Texas on January 8(?), 1969. My voice was beginning to bloom into a full-throated boy soprano (along with natural vocal nuances). During the interlude, I can remember George Bragg, the conductor, lean over and whisper to me: "That was beautiful. Now make it great."

This was recorded with a hand-held microphone (by fellow choirboy Mark Lovelace) about twenty feet in back of me as I stood at the edge of the choirloft in the back of the church. After the wedding ceremony, the groom's father, Howard Walsh, found me at the reception and took me by the hand, introducing me to all the guests as the soprano soloist. They all were astounded, thinking it was a woman who had sung.

Kalman Halasz, a pupil of Zoltan Kodaly at the Franz Lizst Academy in his native Budapest, is the organist in this recording. An assistant conductor and tour accompanist for the Texas Boys Choir, he was a truly major influence on me and I cannot stress this enough. This man taught me how to read music, solfege with hand signals, how to sight-read and had a mountain of patience (but was a very strict disciplinarian). He was an accomplished organist, pianist and composer and even was an avid jazz enthusiast. I remember his playing of the Erroll Garner solo "Young Love."

12 Panis angelicus


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339: Laudate dominum
Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165

In December of 1968, George Bragg asked me to learn the Mozart Alleluia. I was handed a Breitkopf und Härtel orchestral score with an LP of the entire cantata, Exsultate, jubilate; the Alleluia being the final movement. I went home and listened to the Alleluia, but also, of course, listened to the entire cantata. I decided to learn the entire work.

In February of 1969, George Bragg arranged a series of weekend concerts called "Connoisseur Concerts". There were two programs, sacred on three Fridays and secular on three Saturdays. And all of these concert's took place at Cowden Hall, a wonderful recital hall on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Friday's concert was built around me so to speak, as I was soloist in three of the four works.

And every Friday night, just before we all would walk onstage, I would drink about a cup of pure lemon juice. Go figure...

I remember so fondly the first performance I ever heard of "Laudate dominum". It was on the occasion of some important holy day at Holy Family Catholic Church when an orchestra was required; a soloist was brought in to sing this work - not a soprano, as Mozart wrote it, but an incredible, light-voiced tenor named Ira Schantz. He had breath control of amazing power.

As far as the learning of "Exsultate, jubilate" is concerned, I did not know what a cadenza was so I sang the ones that were on the recording. And no, sorry to say, I did not take the high C at the end of the Alleluia. Didn't have it. It's not written.

Most of this recording comes from one of a weekly rehearsal at Cowden Hall during the run of the Connoisseur Concerts. I walked in and saw all these microphones. I stood up and went through the cantata once as I had done at every week's rehearsal.

But around this time, plans had begun to film a documentary about the Texas Boys Choir and its ideals. It was decided to use this recording of "Exsultate, jubilate". Unfortunately, at one point in the editing process, they decided to cut about a third of music from the third movement, "Tu virginum corona". That missing section has been replaced here with a live performance in the same hall days later, recorded by my mother with a Norelco hand-held microphone on a C-120 cassette. In the end, only the "Alleluia" was used in the film ("A Time of Waking:) with me lip-synching.

13 Laudate dominum

14 I. Exsultate, jubilate
15 II. Recitativo: Fulget, amica dies
16 III. Tu virginum corona
17 IV. Alleluia


Gregg Smith

Bible Songs For Young Voices: In my Spirit

Gregg Smith has been in my musical life almost as long as George Bragg. I first came into contact with him when The Texas Boys Choir and the Gregg Smith Singers participated in Grammy Award-winning landmark recordings of the choral music of Charles Ives, Stravinsky's Perséphone (conducted by the composer) and an album of Christmas Carols, all for Columbia Masterworks and produced by John McClure. Gregg was an extremely colorful artist and always lit up a room when present. He subsequently wrote a solo for me in his cantata "Beware of the Soldier". As an adult, I sang under his auspices in performances of Stravinsky's Renard under the baton of Robert Craft as well as a sudden replacement as his tour accompanist.

This solo (one revered by all soloist hopefuls) I always considered very difficult as the haunting piano accompaniment constantly wove itself among the notes of the solo line, thus making it treacherous to sing accurately. I find my performance somewhat note-bound, remembering how difficult it was to perform. This performance is from a concert in Sherman, Texas which took place on March 30, 1969. The accompanist is Kalman Halasz and the conductor is George Bragg.

18 In my Spirit

Giacomo Puccini

Tosca: The Role of the Shepherd Boy

This CD ends with a track that represents the end of my brief career as a boy soprano. The Texas Boys Choir was asked to participate in a revival of the 1968 Bliss Hebert/Willa Kim production of The Magic Flute. This time, I sang the role of the Second Spirit, plus the Shepherd Boy in Puccini's Tosca. The date of this performance is most likely July of 1969. The sound is rather faint, but this captures my voice as it was rapidly changing. I clearly remember being barely able to get through performances of The Magic Flute, the voice was leaving so quickly. During the final dress rehearsal for Tosca (the opening night of the the 1969 season), John Crosby asked that I sing it from a nuymber of places back stage. One of these locations was even on the roof of the stage. Eventually, backstage right was chosen. John Crosby called me to the pit to thank me personally for my efforts.

18 Tosca: Voice of the Shepherd