The Semiotics of Classical LP Cover Art (ca. 1970), or, When Things Started to Get Fun
May 15th, 2009 | 7:11 am est |
For most of the early years of the LP, it was easy to distinguish classical albums from pop and rock albums with a quick glance at the cover art. There was stylistic diversity in classical cover art, but a recognizable graphic syntax served as a code that was understood virtually universally: this is serious music; if that’s not what you’re looking for, move on. The cover art for “popular” music, on the other hand, often using whimsical or sexual or just plain weird visuals to grab the shopper’s attention, tended to telegraph a more inviting, inclusive message: if you’re looking for good times, look no further!
A sampling of some typical classical and popular albums from the 1960s is a reminder of how pronounced the contrast could be.
… and on the pop side of the aisle
The line that allowed the shopper to instantly differentiate the content of an album based on the style of its cover art eventually began to blur, as can be seen in the change in style of these LP covers for the same piece of classical music, starting around 1970. (The dates refer to the album release, not the date the recording was made.)
Lehár: The Merry Widow, Lovro von Matacic conducting The Philharmonia Orchestra of London, EMI, 1962
Lehár: The Merry Widow, Franz Bauer-Theussl conducting the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Westminster Gold, 1970.
Brahms: Symphony No.2, Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsche Grammophon, 1964.
Brahms: Symphony No. 2, William Steinberg conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Westminster Gold, 1970.
Holst: The Planets, Sir Adrian Boult conducting The New Philharmonia Orchestra, EMI, 1967.
Holst: The Planets, Sir Adrian Boult conducting The Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Westminster Gold, 1970.
(N.B. The “new” style covers above were all produced by Westminster Gold.)
Suddenly, classical LPs were using the same kinds of sexy, irreverent, vernacular styles of covers that had previously only been associated with pop. The semiotic link between the style of the cover art and the style of the musical content was coming undone. Since then, the cover art for pop and classical has evolved in similar directions, and we’ve reached the point where the shopper often actually has to read the labeling (maybe even checking out the details on the back of an album) to figure out what musical genre an album falls into, as these recent classical releases illustrate.
Virgil Moorefield: Things You Must Do to Get to Heaven
John Corigliano: Mr. Tambourine Man
Craig Walsh: Bugaboo
Terry Riley: The Cusp of Magic
This shift was due in large part to the art of Christopher Whorf, working for Westminster Gold, a bargain label that primarily reissued older releases. From 1970 through the mid 70s, Whorf created a series of dozens of spectacularly goofy covers that stood the assumptions about classical album art on their collective heads, and opened the door to broadly expanded creative possibilities. The Westminster Gold examples above are all Whorf’s work. (It must be admitted that for all the progress that has been made in packaging classical music in the last 35 or 40 years, the sublime silliness of Whorf’s covers has rarely been matched.)
In response to an earlier All Music article about his work, Christopher Whorf wrote, “Though I would love to take the credit for the all the WG covers, most were the demented-sense-of-humor of my older brother Peter Whorf. We worked together often, especially at A&M (take a look at his Herb Alpert “Whipped Cream and other Delights” package, or almost any A&M record). WG was a series on “bought” classical music masters, that really had no way of competing with the likes of CBS’s or Capitol’s Angel’s classical recordings. So why not do “crazy” packaging? Remember, records were $4.95 each in stores, so if we could get you to pick-up one or two extras on impulse (or flashy covers), we had done our job. These packages were fabulous fun to do, and quite frankly, the recording artist wasn’t around to bitch.”
You can check out earlier articles about Whorf’s work here:
The Golden Age of Classical LP Covers — Westminster Gold, installment I: The Just Plain Inscrutable
Westminster Gold LP Covers, installment II: The Suggestive
This installment features some of Whorf’s cleverest and most genuinely insightful work — cover art whose commentary is always witty, sometimes absurdly punning, and often surprisingly profound.
Music for Voices and Viols in the Time of Shakespeare
The image catches both the instrumental and vocal aspect of the repertoire by turning the viols into faces with the sweetness and simplicity of a Miró painting, if that artist had worked in monochrome.
Haydn: Military Symphony and Farewell Symphony
Whorf uses one striking image to illustrate the themes of both symphonies. Talk about economy of means!
Prokofieff: The Flaming Angel
Whorf perfectly captures the spirit and even the specifics of Prokofiev’s opera about medieval sexual hysteria, a work that’s both rapturous and grotesque, by juxtaposing the delusional heroine’s crazed face framed as a moth (headed for a flame) hovering over a warty toad.
Music for Multiple Orchestras
The complexity of interlocking gears is an ideal analog for the intricate coordination required by conducting multiple orchestras.
Julian Bream Plays Bach
Johann Sebastian looks considerably more athletic than in his usual depictions, like he might have a serious chance of upsetting guitarist Julian Bream.
Kabalevsky conducts Kabalevsky
In a similar vein, Whorf pits the composer/conductor against himself. It looks like it could be a toss-up.
Fauré: Quartet No. 1 for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello
A separated orange beautifully expresses the integrality of the players in a quartet, and it’s a lovely image, besides.
Whorf found a variety of visual analogs for “Greatest Hits” collections.
Julian Bream’s Greatest Hits
Virgil Fox’s Greatest Hits
Handel: Judas Maccabaeus
This one is a little subtle, but the name of the second century BCE hero of the Jewish rebellion against the Seleucid Empire, Maccabeus, means “the hammer.”
Beethoven: Octet
The “yecch” factor is pretty strong, but it’s probably not an inaccurate image for some late night rehearsal or recording sessions.
W. A. Mozart: Requiem
Whorf’s vivid imagery for a Requiem for the Dead pulls no punches.
Wagner: Die Götterdämmerung
Saving the best for last, this should be on any short list of the Greatest Classical Covers of All Time. Die Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods), the culmination of Wagner’s massive operatic cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen, ends with a staggering apocalypse: the world is consumed by fire, and then by a flood, in which human civilization as well as the Gods are destroyed. Whorf sums up the monumentality of the loss with unparalleled brilliance …
… that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
For more Westminster Gold covers, check out this website.
Although this thread was a — pardon the redundance — re-treading of a topic about album covers and the oeuvre’s musical contents, I actually found the Whorfs’ (or the Whorves?) radical album covers quite bracing and similar to Andy Warhol’s use of the every visuals to represent something. It has been said before that while art aspires to a timelessness, it is also subjective and one that changes with the times.
Loved the examples used here, particularly Lehar’s operetta ‘The Merry Widow’ — soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s profile picture is just as true as the depiction of a bohemian woman who is preparing to get under the influence. The ‘Greatest Hits’ photos were literal portrayals of bullet-induced hits but were also profound in its irreverence and keen understanding how radical visual representation (album cover) complements the music contained in the vinyl.
Maybe I am making a mountain out of a molehill but a famous American cultural critic Fredric Jameson said that once the text is freed from the artist’s conception, anyone can interpret its meanings regardless of the intentions of the creator/artist.
Good job — on this article. You should write a full-length article on this.
Nothing like a little post-modern discursive analysis to brighten my day. Cooters.
Wow it was a ‘weird’ design.. but somehow I must say that the idea between the artwork is wonderfull..
I loved this article - fantastic work, short though it may be!
Most of the examples are simple,elegant and graphically beautiful. That being said, I think the pictures for “Julian Bream Plays Bach” and “Beethoven: Octet” are just dumb.
I’ve long been a fan of the juxtaposition of cover art and content. Being in the biz myself for years I’ve seen some incredible stuff. Check-out the Ohio Players albums for a sexual rush. and for just plain weird find some Ghan Wilson stuff. This is a great subject and I hope you’ll take the previous suggestion and offer a more in depth piece soon. Thanks!!!
I was a classical music critic, writing for a small southern literary quarterly, from the mid-1970s through 1985. In a sea of albums with much the same look, the Westminster covers were a mischievous change of pace and always made me smile. Finding superlatives for the music therein was another matter, however!
As I suspect is true of most of the record-buying youngsters, the cover art was the guy on the sidewalk yelling about the great show inside for only the price of admission; the girl leaning against the wall saying “C’mon-wanna party?”; the guy just inside the alley wearing an overcoat lined with watches, bracelets and other shiny things. These covers were also men and women who delivered on their word, who not only made good on the promise of the sound on the disc, but provided graphics that should you look at them today still stir up the endorphins.
Seeing some of these covers again was a real and unexpected treat - seeing those I hadn’t seen before was the “bonus material”.
Thank you for a terrific article.
As I looked through the cover art, I found myself saying: “I remember that one” …thinking back how I used to spend hours looking through the discount bins in many record stores I would frequent. Thanks for a happy memory.
Was that Trent Reznor on “The Planets” redesign?!?
Cover Art has always been fascinating - some of the above examples - such as the wheel and the hammer and the ashtray - are presented as being so powerful - and expressive - Tom Robbins would have a field day.
The loss of such a medium ( cd covers just cant compare ) - is a tragedy.
I remember working in a record store in the 70’s and the excitement I felt looking through new inventory.
I credit the Ohio Players among many others for providing me with my healthy libido. Heh Heh.
Great article - it opens up so many discussions.
Does anyone else remember the “VW Hubcap” “Die Walkure” from the early 70s with a (presumably) nude woman holding up two VW hubcaps over the naught bits? Or the Rodin “Nude Kiss” flame-soaked cover for the Oramndy/PHil O album of Scriabin’s “Poem of Ecstasy/Peom of Fire”? I was 13, I was too embarassed to have my mother buy the record for me, so I had to scrounge the $3.99 off a friend to pay cash myself for it…
I think I owned some of these recordings. And I DO remember the “Gotterdammerung” cover, as I think it was in the same series as the “Hubcap” Walkure!
A genuinely fascinating article, thank you for sharing the work of Christopher Whorf with Westminster. Do you think the artwork enticed younger audiences into classical music? Or perhaps repelled the “classicists”? I know I would buy Beethoven’s Octet on the basis of the rank cover art, it’s just wonderful. But then again, I have a secret thing for Beethoven, as I was a violinist in a former life.. and when I say former life, I mean five years ago.
It is interesting what you say about the recognisable graphic syntax of classical cover art. A coloured yellow box and some serif font on a record cover can be pretty intimidating to a pleb, let me tell you.
Have you seen Morrissey’s lampoon of classical cover art for his album, Ringleader of the Tormentors?
http://991.com/newgallery/Morrissey-Ringleader-Of-The-353394.jpg
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Now this is a nice subject to read about. As a collector of (mostly live-) opera recordings by Italian and French composers, I always love to look at the Italian covers of the Cetra and the Replica LP’s, and there is this name which I have been trying to detect: Helmut Ebnet, who worked for Cetra Live Opera and seems to have had a studio in Milan in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Apart from this, I would also be happy to know who designed the covers for the American BJR and Robin Hood private labels.
If you know the answers, please send a message to: stevensurdel@hotmail.com
Thanks Stephen. I really enjoyed your post. Thanks so much for writing about such a unique and imaginative designer. Very inspiring.
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