Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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28 THE ASHBURIAN On December lst, 1950, the Music ,Club assembled at the home of Mrs. Barwick. The purpose of this gathering was to hear Mrs. Barwick play the harpsichord. She began by telling us how the harpsichord had been derived from the psaltery, virginal and spinnet. To illustrate the virginal music, she played a piece composed by VVilliam Bird in 1612. After this brief, but most interesting description, Mrs. Barwick went on to play selections from the masters of each country where the harpsichord was popular. First, she took a piece by Purcell of England, secondly, she took some descriptive selections by Couperin of France, which included: 'LLes Tricoteuses . She also included Tambourrin , composed by Rameau. Thirdly, she played two pieces from Italy coma posed by Scarlati, and lastly Mrs. Barwick took some selections from Germany, where the harpsichord music reached its peak. From Germany she played one piece by Handel, and then three short preludes by Bach. ln conclusion she played us some short excerpts by the modern composer Francis Poulene. VVhen this wonderful recital was finished, we left Mrs. Barwick's house feeling that we knew much more about the harpsichord than we had done previously, and we left very grateful to have had the opportunity of such an educational, and inspiring evening. Un Tuesday evening, February 13th, the Music club was especially fortunate to have as its guest Mrs. Ruth Perry Hamilton, the mother of an Ashbury boy and a very distinguished Folk song singer. Mrs Hamil- ton is better known in England where she performed regularly with the B.B.C. and appeared with Sir Henry Wood and Sir Benjamin Dale on several occasions. She was King's Medallist of the Royal Academy of Music. Interspersing her songs with a connected talk on the development of folk ballads, Mrs. Hamilton won us all over with her naturalness and friendly charm. ln the short time available, the audience was lifted on the magic carpet of Song and carried through England, Scotland, lreland, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Germany and America. lVe crossed the years from the wandering gypsies of the twelfth century to the comparatively recent folk music of the United States. Mrs. Hamilton was introduced by the Chairman of the Music Club, lan Scott, and thanked by the Club's Staff Advisor, Mr. Sibley. Also on the same pro- gramme we were happy to have two films. The first was entitled Steps of the Ballet , which showed us the different stages of a ballet, from the basic positions and movements to the finished performance. These were explained for us by the famous dancer Robert Hclpmann. The second hlm was a short one featuring the Toronto Symphony Orchestra playing the third Movement of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony in B Xlinor. The committee responsible for the operation of this club have been lan Scott as Chairman, Mr. Sibley as Staff Advisor, assisted by Mr. Drayton, Graham jackson acted as our reporter.

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THE ASHBURIAN 27 THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CLUB HIC International Relations Club held two meetings this year under the able direction of Nlr. Polk. The first meeting was held on the thirteenth of October at seven-thirty. The main business of the evening was election of officers, and john Fraser, lan Scott and B. Genesove were elected as President, Vice President, and Recording Secretary respectively. Following this, documentary films were shown by Nlr. Sibley, dealing with recent history such as the Second XVorld XVar. One film dealt with the progress of the XVar in Furope from the invasion of Normandy to the final surrender of Germany. The next meeting was a mock political convention. This was held with Xlr. R. Sumner in the chair, on a Friday in the last half of the winter term. Various proposals were made and discussed for the party platform, and the evening ended with the election of a new leader. The five candidates were joe Gimenez, Diego Nlendez, Gerald Rheinderhofi, Frank Penaloza, and Fransisco Carreno. Diego Nlendez won the election on the fourth ballot, with 25 out of 45 votes. The evening was a great success, and many thanks are due to Nlr. Polk and Klr. Belford for their assistance. THE MUSIC CLUB HE first meeting of the newly formed Nlusic Club took place on Tuesday, November l-lth, at the College, when we were privileged to see a group of movies. The first film was an excellent one, based on the life of jean Sibelius, the great Finnish composer. Throughout this picture we saw excerpts from his IUHG poem Finlandia , and The Swan of Tuonelan. The second film was a March of Time on Music in America . This film featured such personalities as Xlarion Anderson. Composer George Gershwin, Bandsman Benny Goodman, Violinist Mischa Elman, and Conductor Serge Koussevitsky. The film showed how jazz was derived from Negro folk music, and how great American composers like George Gershwin got their inspirations from the popular idiom of their time. The third and final film was Instruments of the Orchestra . In this film the famous British conductor. Dr. Nlalcolm Sargent, acted as commentator, demonstrated the sound of each instru- ment and then conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in Benja- min Britten's Variation and Fugue on a Theme . by Purcell.

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'I HE .JSHBURIAN Iv THE SKI CLUB Ni-iw function was added to .-Xsliliiirfs winter sports this year, that of a Ski Club. The Club was formed by boys of all ages and the only qualification one had to present to become a member was a keen desire to ski. Our Headmaster obtained a cabin for the club, which was situated only a short forty minute hike from Camp Fortune itself. lt was divided into four rooms. three of which were used for sleeping quarters, and the fourth as eommon room and mess hall. lt was equipped with two stoves and sixteen bunks. Needless to say of course the sixteen bunks were slept in regularly on week-ends of skiing weather. A committee was formed by the fellows in the club and the cabin was extremely well managed through- out the season. johns' Fripp was hired as an instructor for the Ski Club aswell as the school's Ski Team and many of the members of both groups profited greatly from his instruction. We would like to thank Xlr. Perry for taking such an interest in our skiing and for helping us the way he did by getting our club started. Our thanks are also due to Xlr. Polk for his co-operation in helping us make the arrangements without which our ski trips would have been impossible. 1