Whiffenpoof Songbook Driving to Completion

Marshall Bartholomew and Fenno Heath

The 20th Century was a time of expansive growth in collegiate choral singing, and particularly in the years following the Second World War. As I continue to engrave Whiffenpoofs music from across the Century, I encounter numerous post WWII pieces that capture the very distinctive ebullience of that era.

As college singing exploded in the 20th Century, the position of choral director at great universities grew in importance and impact in the wider world. Yale's Marshall Bartholomew is conspicuous in this regard, having published two editions of the "Songs of Yale", one in 1934 and another in 1953, which became college songbooks at many universities. When the late Fenno Heath took over, he inherited this rich tradition and continued to enhance and develop it.

As Yale admitted women in the late 1960's, Fenno had his hands full creating a new repertoire for mixed chorus. Yale men had this rich and deep tradition of songs, among them songs that made great good fun college life. Luckily for everyone, Fenno Heath reworked much of the cherished repertoire for mixed chorus. A new "Songs of Yale" was brought under our beloved Fenno.

Songs Every Yalie Loves

A couple of humorous songs every Yalie knows are "We're Saving Ourselves for Yale" and "Daddy Is a Yale Man". These were songs written by Yalies about being Yalies, poking fun at their college experience and made real crowd pleasers. Both of these songs came out of the Whiffenpoof repertoire, and are among a group of songs from the post war era that got folded into the immortal core Yale repertoire. Both were written by men who were likely classmates and pals of Fenno Heath, while Marshall Bartholomew was still directing the Yale Glee Club. These songs are on my desk now.

The "Missing" Link Returns!

Robert F. "Missing" Link's "Song Fest" was among this group of music, as I mentioned before. Another piece from that manifesto, "The Old Songs" landed on my desk a couple weeks ago. Some of those songs made the Yale Songbook, some made the Whiff songbook, and some just keep floating around campus.

Sacred Texts

What is it like engraving songs with this much tradition, songs that are beloved by generations of men and women for the last 60 years? It's amazing. I get to look at versions with the original markings of the arranger, songs that were later revised when folded into the "Songs of Yale" in 1953. I also consider my work will sit on pianos of some of the best a cappella singers and arrangers the world has known.

But more than anything, it means it has to be really good. The charts have to read well, express the energy and delight of the music, solve problems for singers and describe performance nuances that would otherwise be forgotten, things I don't know but things other members of the team know from being around longer and compiling massive archives. It's a job I take quite seriously. We're hoping a lot of people will enjoy a good deal of fun singing out of this book!

"To the Sky" is coming!

We're still pushing to bring home 23 cuts on the "To the Sky" CD. Like many things in life, if one thought about the enormity of this task, one would never begin. I don't mean just the recording work. Think back with me to 2004 or 2005 for a minute....

The Blue Dream Begins

In 2004, I was still dreaming of singing in an a cappella group where I could contribute my directing skills and hear some of my arrangements sung. The dream was fuzzy and back then, my life was a mess. It was a dream I'd had for many years, but one of those "Yeah, like that's going to happen!" kind of dreams. I had a few arrangements I'd worked to completion, but no idea how I would go about forming a group or building an actual repertoire. I had been singing with Polymnia Choral Society for a couple years, and the tenors I knew were interested in starting something. But you gotta have 4 parts, and that means basses! The idea needed more momentum - I needed to believe it was possible and I needed basses!

In 2005 Saki, a friend from Polymnia Choral Society, asked me at one of the rehearsal breaks if we could get a bunch of guys to sing some a cappella stuff, and it was like a spark that hit dry tinder. Saki knew the basses and had some pull with them. Yes, he could deliver 6-8 men in "the basement". So it happened. We mounted a couple songs and made them work. People heard us and they liked it. They wanted business cards and bookings. And we had two songs....

How Much Work Is it?

So like I said at the outset, it's a huge amount of work. You start meeting every week and learning stuff. Some guys drop out, others join; things change. You try to figure out how to get 40 minutes of music memorized across 15-20 people and figure out how you're going to look like something of a show.

I went for what I call the "just add water" approach: take 18 guys who need about 18 songs. Get them from ignorance to knowledge as fast as possible - from not knowing how to entertain to being entertaining - from no repertoire to a set list - in less than no time. How do you do that? I decided to fill things out quickly with sea chanties. Why? Because the ensemble needs to learn the chorus once while one soloist has to memorize the 9 verses and then you got a song. It's manly and people will sit through it. Do that a few times over, spice it up with a few spirituals, gospel and rock/pop tunes and you got a repertoire.

Then arrange like your pants are on fire and see what holds up in rehearsal. Spice up the repertoire as fast as you can with anything that sticks. Take it one month at a time. Find a few good arrangements that suit your group at the retail outlets and work them in.

Reaching Out, Going Beyond

Then go beyond. I decided to make contact with some ringer arrangers and develop relationships to foster new work or revive lost work.

First, I made contact with Walter Latzko the arranger for The Chordettes. It was a couple years ago, and my guys needed good, secular Christmas music. I had fallen in love with Mr. Latzko's work (you know him from "Mr. Sandman" and "Lollipop, Lollipop") many years ago as a child watching The Chordettes on "The Arthur Godfrey Show". I asked him to arrange "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" which became his 979th arrangement (completed in about 2 days flat!). Later, he and I reworked it to suit my group of amateurs to an excellent result.

Then, through the Whiffenpoof Songbook project and the SOB Songbook Restoration Project, I reconnected with some incredible vocal arrangers from the last half of the 20th Century whose work had largely been mothballed or retired. These guys have been incredibly generous of their time reviewing my work, but also sharing new stuff or arrangements in their attics. A few have arranged or collaborated with me on new works.

Pants On Fire

Meanwhile, with my pants afire, I worked developing pieces I heard performed by some of my favorites artists like "Eddie From Ohio", Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, Ray Charles, Son House and The Sensational Nightingales.

After a few years of this, the repertoire becomes seriously spiced up! Over 4 years, we have laid some serious pipe. We are singing some incredible music. You will hear this on the "To the Sky" CD.

There may not be 23 cuts on the final CD. But once we boil it down, I promise you you will get a solid sense of Blue of a Kind. You'll hear the roots of this entire story on the CD, and you'll hear where we are going.

To the Sky, Alice!

There are so many hours of work put in by the guys to make this CD complete; so many dreams dreamt over many years. Visions developed, ideas realized and crystallized in long hours of drill and practice, rehearsal and performance, review and reevaluation and finally, standup time in the studio. "To the Sky" will echo the expressions of men on decks of sailing ships, men who worked railroad track, men who loved women and succeeded or loved them and lost, men who longed for freedom or for salvation, men who yearned to be with their God or with their girlfriend Under the Boardwalk. It will tell a lot of stories.

But one story it will tell is that of us becoming Blue. This is the Blue foundation - the beginning of our story, years in the making. Years.

Bob