"How can Dartmouth be described to an outsider
in a few paragraphs? There is so much to the College and life in Hanover that pages of description would never suffice.
Can one tell of Winter Carnival and skiing, or Spring and schlump, of football and foliage, and surely instill the Dartmouth
spirit in the very bones of the listener. We think not.
This recording is an attempt to bring to the
uninitiated the thrill, the warmth, the deserved boasts of Dartmouth. The success of this attempt can be directly attributed
to Dartmouth's fine Glee Club and the very talented director, Paul Zeller. Under the direction of Professor Zeller,
the Glee Club has risen to the pinnacle among college groups and has stayed there. With appearances throughout the United
States, on television, in the movies, on the radio, and even a Summer at Radio City Music Hall, this Glee Club enjoys the
benefits of professional experience while maintaining an amateur standing. The sound betrays the standing: There are
no bathtub tenors in this group, no vocal sandbags. Every song makes its contribution to the Dartmouth legend, and all
are delivered precisely by the Glee Club.
Up to now, we have been introducing Dartmouth
and the Glee Club to the friends of the College. To the "Sons of Old Dartmouth" neither institution needs introduction.
The College has been the very life of these men since matriculation, and the Glee Club, as Dartmouth's singing ambassadors,
has provided many nostalgic moments along the way.
Dartmouth's musical tradition is rich.
It has been blessed with gifted musicians and inspired poets who have produced College songs the envy of all the mortarboard
set. The first side of the record is a true reflection on undergraduate days. Opening appropriately with "Men
of Dartmouth," the alma mater of Dartmouth, the Glee Club follows that with a tale of "Eleazar Wheelock" and his rum curriculum,
and then the "Twilight Son," describing the onset of the still Hanover night. "Williams True To Purple," "Come,
Fellows, Let Us Raise A Song" and "Football Medley" are songs heard on Saturday afternoons after a victorious Big Green has
humbled another opponent. When the beer mugs and the punch-filled loving cups appear, "A Son of a Gun" is bound to be
sung, followed by a two-minute synopsis of four years in "Pea Green Freshmen." Perhaps the most sentimental and certainly
the best remembered College song is "Dartmouth Undying." One cannot help but be caught up in the phrases...
and, a little dreaming is fair game.
The reverse side finds the Glee Club in a
spectrum of musical moods. The group offers "The Hanover Winter Song," skoaling in defiance the "great white cold."
From their concert repertoire, the Glee Club sings the contemporary music of the late Robert Kurka in "Who Shall
Speak for the People," the haunting, and very beautiful, "She Is My Slender, Small Lover," and the rousing spiritual, "Soon
-- Ah Will Be Done," among others.
By this point, the capabilities of the Dartmouth
College Glee Club are apparent and established. What we hope is that the unashamed, verdant beauty of Dartmouth
has become a vision; if it hasn't yet, let's go back and reflect on the past together. Dartmouth, there IS music for
our singing!"
