Park Foundation Music App

Home > Releases

Moods Americana / My Hero

Overview

Moods Americana / My Hero --- 1950

Live recording of the earliest important piece of music in the career of Ohio-born and eventually Berlin-based composer Gerald Humel (1931-2005). "Moods Americana" was written by Humel at the age of 17, while he was still a high school student in Cleveland. In the spring of 1949, it was a top prize winner in the Scholastic Creative Music Awards, one of only two compositions given immediate radio network airplay by the Columbia Broadcasting System. It was performed on April 26, 1949 by the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, with Bernard Herrmann directing. The performance on this record occurred at the 100th Annual Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Ohio, during the last week of August 1950.