27 de julho de 2014

Birds and the Brook - Margaret McKee



Margaret McKee (1898 - 1960), known as "The Queen of Whistlers" was probably the most famous of professional whistlers during the 1920s. She was a pupil of Agnes Woodward at the California School of Artistic Whistling and performed as a teenager and young adult on the vaudeville circuit giving concerts throughout the United States and in Europe. She was a specialist in bird imitations and performed as a whistling soloist with orchestral accompaniment. She recorded on several record labels including Victor and Brunswick and once recorded with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. On the Grey Gull label, she used the pseudonym "Jane Emmett". In 1927 she appeared in a Vitaphone movie short, "Margaret McKee: Famous Whistler" in which she performed four selections.

The music "The Birds and the Brook" was published in 1893. Early recordings of this were done by the Metropolitan Orchestra (1902) and Arthur Pryor Orchestra (1904) for the Victor record label.

Jan Kubelik plays "Zephyr" by Hubay