Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

Page 31 text:

'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

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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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,U THE ASHBURIAN THE PGETRY READING CONTEST AMES XYRr:FoRD, Canadian poet of the admirable Of Time and the Lover , kindly agreed to be our adjudicator this year. The contest was held in the school chapel, and proved a most rewarding perform- ance-if only because there were twice as many contestants as last year, when the contest was inaugurated. The Senior School competitors read Edward Thomas, SWedes,' as their set piece, the junior School, Christina Rossetti's Uphill . The unseen passages were respectively, Herbert's The Pulley and XVilde's Requiescat . The Middle School read the junior set piece and the Senior unseen. ln addition each boy read a passage of his own choosing. Dr. XYreford expressed great amazement and pleasure at the number of contestants and at the high quality of their renditions. He found it most diflicult to choose two prize winners, therefore it was decided to award three prizes. liven so, the third prize had to be split, because of a tie. The winners were: lst prize, presented by Prof. A. Edinborough of Queen's Univers- ity-j. Fraser. 2nd prize, to be named in honour of Dr. TYreford, the XYreford Prize-S. lYoollcombe. 3rd prize, presented by C. C. Dayton-D. Alexandor and T. Finlay. XYQ are most grateful to Dr. XVreford for his interest and good judgment.