Fraser Gange

The Scottish baritone Fraser Gange was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1886 and died in Baltimore, USA, in 1962. He made his debut as a recitalist in London in 1906 and built up a solid recital and oratorio career in Britain throughout the teens and early 1920's. After his New York recital debut in 1924, he became an active soloist in the top echelon of U.S. orchestras, singing in historic performances with such conductors as Koussevitzky, Mengelberg, Toscanini, and Furtwängler. In 1932 he abandoned the concert stage for a second career as a full-time teacher of singing, in New York at both his private studio behind Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard Summer School, and in Baltimore at the Peabody Conservatory.

During his concert period, he made a handful of records for HMV and Columbia. Sadly, Gange never revived his recording career after the collapse of Columbia during the early 1930s. His last commercial recordings were made for that label in 1928 or 1929. Although Gange has been unjustly neglected by time, these records are still prized by many who are charmed by his artistry and his gift for vivid storytelling.

The majority of Fraser Gange songs on this CD-ROM were recorded in New York during his 1927-1929 sessions with Columbia. Of the remainder, Twa Bonnie Maidens (~1916) represents his earlier UK Columbia acoustics and Sea Dogs of England and Sea Fever (~1919) the later HMV acoustics. The Honour and Arms fragment is from a sound-check of Gange rehearsing for a Peabody faculty recital in July of 1954.

Adams Nancy Lee
Cowen Border Ballad
German Rolling down to Rio
Hall Blind Ploughman, The
Handel Samson: Honour and arms (rehearsal at age 68)
Handel Xerxes: Ombra mai fu
Handel Scipione: Hear me, ye winds and waves
Huhn Invictus
Ireland Sea Fever
Lawrence Achal by the Sea
Lidgey Sea Dogs of England, The
Pinsuti Bedouin Love Song
Schumann Two Grenadiers, The
Speaks On the Road to Mandalay
Strauss Heimliche Aufforderung
Strauss Ruhe meine Seele
traditional Twa Bonnie Maidens
Walt Lassie o' Mine

Click here for a biography of Fraser Gange; for further information, please see the Fraser Gange Home Page at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jgraves/fgange.htm on the World Wide Web, or send email to Patty Fagan <74407.1124@compuserve.com>

The photograph above is provided courtesy of the Archives of the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University.

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