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Choral Groups Take Cheer to Hospitals
(Although it is the policy of The FLAT HAT to have strictly student writing, we feel that the tribute to and the criticism of the choral groups by Dr. Harrison deserves publication. Dr. Harrison is the chairman of the entertainment commitee of the Camp and Hospital committee of the James City County Red Cross Chapter and was responsible for arranging the trips to the hospitals.)
By CHARLES T. HARRISON
For the College Choir, the brilliant concert in Phi Beta Kappa Hall on Sunday, December 16, was only the first of a series. On the two evenings fol- lowing, it sang the Christmas season in for the ill and wounded veterans at Camp Patrick Henry and Camp Peary.
The two hosptial concerts were arranged by the local chapter of the American Red Cross. Both were unforgettable Christmas observances.
On Monday evening, December 17, the Choir sang at Patrick Henry, giving substantially the pro- gram of the College concert. Since the men at the Patrick Henry hospital have recently come in from overseas and are mostly bed patients, a relatively small crowd of them got to the Red Cross recreation hall. But neither the director, Mr. Fehr, nor the singers seemed aware that the audience was small. From the precision of the candlelight Processional, through the almost incredibly warm and accurate Hallelujah Chorus, till the Choir had marched from the hall, the singing was in top form. The audi- ence sat enchanted.
Nor was that the end. There was a general de- mand from soldiers and nurses that the men in the wards be given an opportunity to hear the music. So Mr. Fehr led his choristers through a mile of the cold catwalks, pausing at ward entrances, serenading the bedridden. A good many of the patients had by that time attached themselves to the Choir. One was a boy in a wheel chair, pushed along by his buddy; another was a negro with a fine bass voice.
The next evening, the Choir went in Navy busses through a thick-falling snow to Camp Peary. Again it repeated the same program, this time to a large audience in a crowded hall. And again it serenaded the wards, including the prison ward, after the recreation hall recital. Again it brought something of warmth and beauty and friendliness to hundreds of boys who were facing a cheerless Christmas.
Mr. Fehr and his Choir responded to the rather arduous request of the Red Cross with the utmost generosity of spirit. But, in choral singing, it is the letter no less than the spirit which giveth life. The technical accomplishment of the group is as- tounding. There can not be many choruses in the country which rival the William and Mary Choir in sheer quality of performance. In balance, in ensem- ble, in clarity of phrasing, in firmness of tempo, in dynamic sensitiveness -- all without loss of exuber- ance -- the Choir demonstrates the effect of brilliant training and laborious practice. The sixteenth century William Byrd, greatest of English com- posers, wrote, "There is not any music of instru- ments whatsoever comparable to that which is made of voices, where the voices are good, and the same well sorted and ordered." All members of the College have reason to be proud of their Choir.
