Distinctive Year for Glee Club
CLIMAX OF ACTIVE SEASON TO BE COMMENCEMENTCONCERT AND SINGING OF " '07 MEDLEY"
SETTLING down to the Hanover routine after its record breaking and highly successful spring trip through the middle west, the Glee Club has started intensive work on its Commencement program.
This year's concert, coming on June 13, will be a memorable one for returning Dartmouth men. The Club, under the direction of Professor Cobleigh '23, will present a program of songs which are of special interest to the alumni of the college—songs which, though perhaps not sung by undergraduates today, will bring back many pleasant memories to undergraduates of yesterday. The highspot of this renaissance will be the revival of the famous " '07 Medley."
For the present student body and the more recent alumni really to appreciate this Medley, which was popular in the days before the War, a bit of the local color of the Dartmouth and Hanover of that day must be understood. In the words of Prof. Harry Wellman, a member of the class of '07, composer of "Men of Dartmouth," and other Dartmouth songs, the Medley was put together "at a time when the College entertained itself." Every day after lunch the entire student body gathered around an old piano in College Hall and sang for about an hour before starting in on the afternoon's work. Those who are Dartmouth men of that era often think back to those days after lunch in Commons. Paul Felt, Nat Redlon, or Harry Wellman would sit down at the piano. The whole undergraduate body gathered around and the strains of "Don't Go Away," "Cheer Up Mary," "Pals," and many others would ring across the campus. It was at that time that the present football songs originated.
Football was just catching on in those days and in the fall the battle cry of "Open up the line and let Billy Knibbs through. Fifteen Yards or more will do"—was sung everywhere around the campus. New songs and original verses to old songs were continually being written. Their composer's would bring them into the noon session and the group would sing them. Some never lasted out the day, but many caught on, became popular, and are still being sung by the undergraduates.
It was back in 1906 that Pat Hathaway '07 and Mort Hull 'OB got the idea that the popular songs that the College was singing every day around the piano in Commons might be grouped into a medley. So with Harry McDevitt, then the outstanding soloist, they began putting all the songs together. The job was completed in June, 1906 and the next year the medley was sung everywhere—appropriately being called the " '07 Medley." The news that the Glee Club would revive the Medley this June has already created much enthusiasm among the alumni of twenty and thirty years ago. Many a man will feel closer to Dartmouth and to his College days when he hears the familiar songs once more.
And many a present undergraduate feels closer to his college and to the Dartmouth men who have preceded him when he hears such perennial favorites as "Men of Dartmouth," "Dartmouth Undying," or "Eleazer Wheelock" ring out on a warm spring evening from sixty lusty voices gathered on the steps of Dartmouth Hall. Every spring the Glee Club, on as many nights as possible, gathers on the steps of Dartmouth and sings until dusk. Hundreds of students and townspeople sit about on the lawn listening, requesting song upon song, and adding their own voices to those of the club. These sings have grown to be a spring tradition. And in the freshmen hearing them for the first time and the seniors hearing them for the last there dwells a kindred sentiment that "Those songs really do something to a fellow in the spring. I'll never forget them."
On May 16 the Club appeared with the Handel Society Symphony Orchestra, doing the choral selections from the last scene of Wagner's Meistersinger. Roland Partridge, a tenor and the Glee Club's voice production coach, and George Britton, bass, were the soloists The Quartet, composed of Dick Hawkins, Bob Lang, Al Bryant, and Bill Dickson, has more requests for engagements that it can fulfill. Its outstanding success of the spring was an appearance at the Secretaries Dinner held in Hanover on May 8. .... To guide the club for the 1937-'38 season Bob Lang '38 was chosen president On May 5 thirty-seven men were selected from the freshman Glee Club for membership in the varsity organization, after an examination of reading music and singing trial.
The year's activities of the Glee club will be brought to a close on Commencement Sunday in June with its participation in the Baccalaureate service in the Bema in the morning; and the presentation of the concert in the evening.
Much of the success of this year's organization has been due to the genuine enthusiasm and hard work of the director, Professor Cobleigh. He merits a hearty vote of congratulation for the excellent job which he has done in gaining for the 1937 Dartmouth Glee Club, not only an excellent collegiate rating but national acclaim as well.
GLEE CLUB UNDER DIRECTION OF ALAN W. BRYANT '37 OF WEYMOUTH, MASS., LEADS CAMPUS SING ON STEPS OF DARTMOUTH HALL.
