Announcing the YGC 2009 Winter Tour Blog

As 2008 draws to a close, the 2009 Yale Glee Club Winter Tour is almost upon us! Winter Tour is a cherished tradition for members of the YGC - it's a chance to showcase a semester of choral work, travel to fun new places, make some new friends and come together even more as a group. This year's tour, starting January 1st, will surely carry on that tradition. The hard work of Tour Managers Sarah Dewey and Mary Schnoor, combined with the generosity of alums and community members in the Pacific Northwest, promise to make for a fantastic experience and great concerts.

But in the midst of all the tradition of the YGC, this year we're going to try something new: a Winter Tour Blog. The Yale Glee Club was founded in 1863 - in internet-age terms, somewhere in the early Paleozoic era. In those days, on-the-road updates would have a tad more difficult than in this age of laptops, wireless internet, and iPhones (the recent bad weather in the Pacific Northwest would probably have made navigation difficult for the YGC's carrier pigeons).

Our hope is to post from each of the places we travel to, so friends and family can log on from home and see what we're up to. Blog posts should start around January 2nd - in the meantime, check out our full itinerary at http://gleeclub.research.yale.edu/tours.php

See you in the new year!
-Danny Townsend CC '10, Publicity Chair

Dead Week Shenanigans

Just in case you were wondering what Glee Club members do during dead week, here is just a glimpse of the festivities! This occurred during a lovely spring afternoon after a bit too much happy frappuccino hour at Starbucks.

"Yale found its Glee 150 years ago," New Haven Register

An article from Donna Doherty in today's New Haven Register. All photos Arnold Gold/New Haven Register... and a video in the original article here.

NEW HAVEN — It has sung all over the world, survived wars and co-education. Its alums include legendary songwriter Cole Porter, former senators Prescott Bush and James Symington, and peace activist Rev. William Sloane Coffin, so reaching 150 years old seemed cause for celebration.  

The Yale Glee Club, the oldest musical organization on campus, has big plans for that occasion, ones which embrace the community and continue through May, including two specially commissioned works, each composer and writer, unbeknownst to the other, choosing to honor the city of New Haven.

  “City Song,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and former Yale Glee-er Lew Spratlan and renowned Yale poet Elizabeth Alexander, will have its world premiere at a gala free concert at 5 p.m. Saturday at Woolsey Hall, featuring current Glee Club members and five decades of…

Ten Songs of Yale you didn't know about

Bram Wayman '09 delves into the depths of songbooks past. The views shared here in no way represent the official opinion of the YGC Blog nor the YGC... & c. & c. & c.*

Though clear favorites stand the test of time, and the old song books of Yale are full of the high stupidity of yesteryear, a few gems that aren't often — if ever — sung today stand out for me. Some of these songs are beautiful, some hilarious, and some downright offensive, but they all deserve a second look, and I'm not convinced all of them should have fallen out of use. I'm no expert on the history of Yale songs, and have only picked from a few books, but here are ten songs of Yale that still bring a smile to my face.

1. "Old Tom Wilson." TTBB. One of Barty's cleverest arrangements, this piece is a song from the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. It features vocal banjos, vocal beer-chugging that gets longer each time the jug goes around, lyrics such as "Big fat gals…

War Dreams Concert (Written by Victoria Pierre)

While I thoroughly enjoyed the Bernstein, I decided to make this blog post an extended version of the pep talk I gave before our concert on Friday, in which I talked about Vaughan Williams. Enjoy!

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I first encountered this piece when I was 16, as part of a northern Virginia choral association concert. They mailed me the score (which I still have) and gave me a few weeks to learn it before having two rehearsals and then a concert. I still remember trying to learn the music note by note (since I couldn’t sight read back then) listen to a midi file of the soprano I part on repeat. So this is how I encountered Vaughan Williams--a piano midi file. My first impression, especially once I got to “Beat! Beat! Drums!” was….what the heck is this music. I didn’t really understand the poetry, or the war, or any of the context surrounding this piece. All I knew was there was something about a solemn church and a bridegroom and bugles, and something about snorting horses in Dan…the piece was a mys…

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