Archives

HISTORY IS A BIG PART OF THE GLEE CLUB.
THIS PAGE IS DEDICATED TO FEATURING
SELECTIONS FROM THE ARCHIVES.

Following is an article from the Harvard Crimson:

‘Quarter Century Is Enough’
Woodworth Resigns HGC Conductorship to Forbes
Woody has resigned as conductor of the Harvard Glee Club.

In a meeting yesterday, the 100-year-old Glee Club heard G. Wallace Woodworth, ’24, James Edward Ditson Professor of Music, announce his resignation, because, he said, “a quarter of a century is enough.” He joined the HGC as assistant accompanist in 1921, and was named assistant conductor in 1925, as well as conductor of the Radcliffe Choral Society. In 1933, upon the resignation of Archibald “Doc” Davison, he was named conductor of the HGC. In the summer of 1956, Woodowrth led the Club on a triumphant concert tour of Europe, its first visit there since 1921.

To succeed him, the Club elected Elliot Forbes, former conductor of the Princeton University Glee Club, as director of the HGC and the Radcliffe Choral Society. The University will appoint another musician as University organist and choirmaster, who may become associated with the Divinity School.

Woodworth will take a sabbatical leave from the University next year, and will return in January, 1959, to take up his appointment as Lowell Television Lecturer on WGBH-TV. The conductor, who has presided enthusiastically over Music 1, – which will still be given next year – will again teach that course in 1959-60, as well as three half-courses for music non-concentrators. “I look forward to participating in the expansion of the music program,” he said yesterday.

Several hours after his announcement to the Glee Club, Woodworth gathered the two musical groups on the steps of Widener to sing the first Yard concert of the year, a series of choruses from the Bach B-Minor Mass. An estimated crowd of 1,000 stood shivering in the cold wind, until, at the start of the “Resurrexit,” the sun broke through the clouds.

“A golden age is downing for the Glee club,” he said at the concert’s close.

photo

A group of ‘Gleeks’ from 1982


photo

Pan Am 1921 Tour Photo


photo

Program cover from the Second Annual Harvard-Yale Football Concert

photo

Check out another wonderful performance of the Glee Club and the Radcliffe Choral Society with the BSO under Charles Münch (click on the photo)

Chorus of the Shepherds
from L’Enfance du Christ (Berlioz)
From: VAI DVD 4303 L’Enfance du Christ
Berlioz
With John McCollum, Florence Kopleff, Theodor Uppman, and Donald Gramm
Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society
Charles Munch, cond. (1966)

Thanks, Sam Rea, for calling our attention to this wonderful recording!


Letter from Boston Symphony Orchestra Conductor, Charles Munch on March 28, 1951, following a joint performance on the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Harvard Glee Club, and Radcliffe Choral Society

photo

Dear Mr. Woodworth:
May I express to you my sincere appreciation and heartiest thanks for the wonderfully trained chorus for the St. Matthew Passion and may I ask you to extend my thanks to all the members of the Harvard Glee Club and the Radcliffe Choral Society, and tell them how profoundly moved I was by their inspired singing. It has really been one of the most satisfying performances in my life.

With renewed appreciation,
Sincerely yours,
Charles Munch