Eastman School of Music - Score Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

Page 7 text:

ALMA MATER Although there is no voice to plumb The depths of our desire, No chord to fling to harmonize A song upon the lyreg No single word, nor note, nor line, No soaring rhyme, or tune N o newer form to mold the hymn Not yet an ancient rune. Still, deep within our inmost selves Tongues are at last set free To pour into the stately beat A nobler melody. Exalted chords to consecrate All that your name inspires, And raise aloft the emblems That guard eternal iires. Your walls enclose all we hold dear, The sum of our desire Of truth and life and loveliness, Dim heights we might aspire. For music has our dreams in thrall, And to your halls we bring The essence of a brighter flame That made the planets sing. To chant thee, Eastman, once again Priest-guardian of that Hame, Grant we tend well the mystic fire Immortal with thy name. -Natalie Gehman

Page 6 text:

LMA MATER O Temple of divinest art, On whose high altar we have laid The gifts of talent and the heart, Invoking Truth's inspiring aid. Herein is found the oil of life With which our sacred lamps to fire, A sanctum where all mental strife May be submerged in pure desire. And here ideals may expand Beneath the glow of Beauty's flame, That we in time as lights may stand To honor thy enduring name. We bring to thee, whose favor lent Both faith and courage through the days, The lasting word of our intent- To Eastman, Alma Mater, praise! -T. Austin-Ball I fThe Score Stali' regrets very much that no suitable Alma Mater song was submitted in the con test conducted this year in coopera- tion with the Composition Department. However, We are pleased to reprint here two of the poems which were submitted as textsj

Page 8 text:

.Nqr , FOREWORD AM highly gratified that the student body, through the Editorial Staff of the Score, are dedicating the 1936 edition of this publication to the American Composer. We are far removed from the days of the past when music had to be written so that there would be something for the player to play and the singer to sing. In fact, so far removed are we from those early days of the history of music that the modern mind is apt to forget that the com- poser through the ages must always be, and remain, the basic factor in the art, for with- out him music, literally, would not exist. I have often said that music is like a telephone conversation. The speaker is the com- poser, or, if we put it in a more depersonalized sense, the creative spirit. The speaking apparatus and the transmission line is the performer. The Listener at the other end of the line is the audience. Important as the second and third factors are, it is obvious that the conversations could not begin with the first agent not present. That this fact has been recognized accounts for the wealth of musical literature which has already accumulated. We should remember, however, that music, if it is to fulfill its greatest usefulness, should never become a dead art. Every age, and every nation of every age, should be expected to make its contribution not only in terms of performers and of audiences but, most important of all, through its manifestation of the creative spirit in music, to that extent may we say that America is fulfilling its privilege and its high obligation. Jhfafr- d4A.Sd1a '