The 2nd Intervarsity Choral Festival: MELBOURNE, 26 May-2 June 1951

Accompanist: Ruth Ockenden
Camp Venue: Toc H Camp, Point Lonsdale
Participants: SUMS, MUCS, AUCS, QUMS

COMMITTEE

MUCS Joint Secretaries: Ruth Ockenden, Anthony Helm

CONCERT

8pm, 1 June, Assembly Hall, Melbourne
Conductor: Ron Penny; William Pierce
Soloists: Violet Harper, Anthony Helm
Program: National Anthem, 'Gaudeamus Igitur' (arr. Ruth Ockenden); Bach God the Lord is a Sun and Shield (SUMS), Holst 'In Youth is Pleasure', 'Ye Little Birds', 'Swansea Town' (MUCS); Bach God so Loved the World (MUCS); Ford 'Since First I saw your Face', Vautor 'Sweet Suffolk Owl', Gibbons 'Dainty Fine Bird', Bennet 'Thyris, Sleepest thou', Morley 'What saith my dainty darling (SUMS); Brahms Song of Destiny (combined)
Notes: also piano solos by Margaret Delves (SUMS). Piano: David Barkla, Ruth Ockenden; Fay Rosefield.
Review: 'Choral Festival Follows Camp', Age, 2 June 1951, p.11. 'Quite an academic air pervaded the Assemble Hall last night when begowned and sometimes capped members of the Melbourne University Choral Society and the Sydney University Musical Society, with the addition of students from Brisbane and Adelaide universities, staged a combined choral festival … The Melbourne and Sydney choirs sang together and separately, and their most impressive performance came in unaccompanied part songs and madrigals.'
John Sinclair, 'Student choristers sing with lusty energy', Herald, 2 June, p.5. 'The singing of university students at last night’s choral concert in the Assembly Hall blasted the oft repeated but foolish suggestion that the race is deteriorating. Refreshed in lung and limb after holidaying at Point Lonsdale, these students sang last night in a manner that was more than healthy; it was lusty. Indeed the energy and enthusiasm was not tempered into musical expression until after interval … The student choral movement is admirable and the future barrister will be no poorer for a little skill as a baritone. As this movement develops, close attention should be paid to the distinction between singing for one’s own enlightenment and pleasure[,] and singing for the pleasure of others. Confusion on this point can lead to unhappiness.'

OTHER COMMENTS

Styled as 'Combined Universities Choral Festival'. Article and photograph, 'Put another Nickel in', Honi Soit, 23.11 (14 June 1951). Photograph of Ian Wallace and Ken Searle in a swordfight on the steps of the Melbourne Public Library, Argus, 2 June, 1951, p.5.