Glee Club Stresses Quality and Breadth During Its European Tour This Summer

Exactly thirty-five years ago the Harvard Glee Club went abroad and gained the distinction of being the first American college chorus to sing there. Since that time, and especially in the past five years, many choral groups have toured Europe.

On June 15, however, nearly 50 members of the Glee Club flew the Atlantic (not on wings of song) for a six-week tour of Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany and England. There they will sing around 30 concerts in as many cities and towns under the leadership of G. Wallace Woodworth '24, James Edward Ditson Professor of Music (who, by the way, served as accompanist for the group's 1921 tour).

Although an American chorus will no longer be a novelty for European ears, the Club is still bound to make a strong impression, for at least two reasons. One is the unsurpassed level of college singing that Woodworth has consistently elicited in recent years.

But Woodworth is not content just to perform any old music well. He quite rightly takes seriously his role of un-official cultural ambassador, and has gone to great pains to select a repertory of 55 works that is unique in breadth and quality.

Of 19 sacred works, 13 are by such Palestrina, Victoria, Byrd, Bach and Handel; while six are from such contemporaries as Milhaud and Vaughan Williams. Of the 36 secular works, three each come from the 16th and 17th centuries, seven each from the 18th, 19th and 20th, plus nine modern arrangements of older songs.

No other touring American chorus can Renaissance and Baroque masters as boast a better corpus of Renaissance and Baroque music. But of special importance is the prominence given to serious pieces by Contemporary Americans. The American works that have reached Europe through other groups have for the most part been of inferior quality. Woodworth wants to show Europe that this country is producing fine choral music of real substance and value. So he is scheduling works by such well-known names as Randall Thompson '20, Virgil Thompson '22 and Irving Fine '37, along with pieces by little known but talented men like Henry Leland Clarke '28, Karl Kohn '48 and Russell Woollen.

In addition to the regular repertory, Woodworth has six pieces available for special academic and festival occasions, together with nine Harvard marches and seven national anthems.

Most of the concerts will devote their first half to sacred music and the second half to secular music. Sacred music only, however, comprises the programs for Florence, Verona, Southwark Cathedral and Westminister Abbey.

Woodworth's careful training and programming are certain to garner continued acclaim for the Harvard Glee Club on its second European tour.