Galt Collegiate Institute and Vocational School - Specula Galtonia Yearbook (Galt, Ontario Canada)

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SPECULA GALTONIA 47 Two young damsels of the G. C. I. were coming along Rose St., Friday morning, when what should appear to view but a pair of blue pyjamas suspended on a limb of a maple tree. These they immediately recognized as the property of a certain red haired girl in the chorus. There are just two solutions to this unfathomable mystery. Either the young lady had been sleep walking or else she had lost them on her way home Thursday night, and they had been found and hung up by a man on his way to work in the small hours of the morning. M.P. fk DF PS We were quite amazed when Alice Ire- dale appeared before us with large rolls of black nair piled high on her head, but we are disappointed to add that, with all due respect to Virgil, her rented wig did not breathe celestial fragrance. Ai!! ORCHESTRA AND GLEE CLUB EXECUTIVE First Row, left to right-L. Bowie, L. Hertel, Helen Fisher, Alice Iredale, Evelyn Porter, C. St. Clair, J. Girvan. Second Row-R. Shea, Janetta Gillespie. Alice McLane, Gladys Wildman, Mr. J. L. Nicol, A.C.C.O. fCond. l . Back Row-Mary Stuart, Mardell Pratt, Margaret Cowie, Mary Hamill. The Orchestra Lighter Move the Minutes Edged with Music MONG the various organizations of our school, the orchestra still holds a destinctive position. Although 'handicapped with the absence of bass and wind instruments, a very successful and creditable showing has been made during the past season. At the Annual Commencement Exer- cises, the orchestra made their first public appearance, and under the direction of llldlr. Nicol, A.C.C.O., ably assisted with t e programme. Our next appearance was on the even- ings of Nov. 21, 22, 23, when the present- ation of Dulcy by the Staff Players Club was given. The several selections rendered were very well received. The Glee Club combined with the Or- chestra, presented for their second an- niversary, a musical play entitled Prin- cess Chrysanthemumj' which proved a success in every way. Since then we have played an important part at Assemblies and at all meetings of the Literary and Musical Society. Thus again in the history of the Col- legiate, music forms an important part of the curriculum, and let us hope that it will continue to prosper in the future. L. R.H

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WWE... BAM 46 SPECULA GALTONIA K Princess Chrysanthemum N the evenings of February, the twentieth and twenty-first, the Glee Club and Orchestra of the G. C. I. presented the operetta, Princess Chrysan- themum, under the direction of Mr. Nicol, A.C.C.O., and we may justly say it proved a huge success in every respect. The Emperor, Wendel Cartwright, gave a fine display of good singing. When he announced his determination to abolish decapitation for criminals and substitute suspension, head downwards, over a slow fire, his subjects expressed deep gratitude for this clemency. A great fete was being held in honour of the coming of the Emperor's daughter, Princess Chrysanthemum. Alice Iredale played the role with great ability. The princess had two lovers, Prince So- Tru fRobert Dayj and Prince So-Sli CEI- mer Casselb. The princess favoured Prince So-Tru and to revenge himself, Prince So-Sli had the princess taken prisoner and carried away to the cave of Inky Night, by Saucer Eyes, the Wizard Cat. This character was extremely well taken by Thomas Stuart. Princess Chrysanthemum, imprisoned in the Cave of Inky Night, with the aid of a magic ring, summoned the Fairy Moon- beam, who was about to help her when she dropped the ring and could not find it. Dorothy Buchanan, as Fairy Moonbeam, the guiding spirit of the princess, acted with charming grace and sang with sweet- ness and good effect. Fairy Moonbeam disappeared at the loss of the ring and the unhappy princess was left to bewail her fate. So-Tru managed to obtain entrance to the cave, and found the ring, which at once caused Fairy Moonbeam to return and aid him. At that moment the Emperor arrived with his attendants, and took Saucer Eyes prison- er, bearing him in triumph to his palace. Threatened with torture, Saucer Eyes, confessed the complicity of Prince So-Sli, whom the Emperor ordered to instant exe- cution. That was, however, frustrated by the appearance of Princess Chrysanthe- mum, accompanied by Prince So-Tru and Fairy Moonbeam with her band. The Em- peror pardoned Saucer-Eyes, and So-S11 at the Princess' request, and gave her hand in marriage to Prince So-Tru, thus bringing everything to a happy conclusion. The character of Top-Knot, the court chamberlain, was well interpreted by Leon- ard Hertel. The quartette of dancers, Marion Smith, Elsie Elston, Kathyrn Bernhardt and Margaret McCallum, gave a delightful exhibition of clever dancing. The princess was attended by four maid- ens, Marian Steen, Ilea Lucas, Mary Stuart, Mardie Pratt, Marian's solo being of outstanding merit. Especially effective was the work of the chorus at the beginning and end of each act. Their harmony was well balanced and their work throughout the whole play be- tokened enthusiastic practice. A great deal of the success of the per- formers must be attributed to the orches- tra, which worked hard, and deserves great praise. Mr. Wholton, our principal, helped the Glee Club with untiring efforts, to pre- sent something of which the school could be very proud. He not only gave freely of his valuable time to the actual producing of the play but aided in various other im- portant ways. Miss Duggan, who looked after the dances and Mrs. C. Knowles and Miss Knapp who superintended the cos- tumes, must also receive great credit. Mr. J. C. Nicol, who conducted the oper- etta, always remained confident through many discouragin practices, and now is to be highly compiimented on his success. The Glee Club intends to give another operetta next year, and once again we wish them the very best of success. 24 Pk 22 Cassel, in spite of all his make-up and great attempts at laughter, which indeed were good-appeared normal again and is asking as many questions as ever. Pk Pls 25 Our sympathies are with Cartwright as his shoes were about three sizes too large, and his pigtail tickled the back of his neck unmercifully.

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48 SPECULA GALTONIA The Crigin of Music study of the savage races shows us that the first and very lowest type of music is the purely rhythmical. Music is a necessity among all primitive peoples and is an equal necessity in the lives of modern nations. The fact that man produces and appreciates this rhyth- mical sound distinguishes him from the rest of creation. The so-called songs, of the birds which appear to have rhythm are not in the same class as those of humanity. Un- like that of man, the song of the bird is involuntary and unvarled. The bird merely supplies wind to his vocal mech- anism. He cannot vary his song. No ani- mal, not even the highest type of ape has ever been observed to produce a series of beats at regular intervals and to combine them for the sake of its own pleasure, and to vary them when so combined. This difference divides man at his lowest from the rest of creation at its highest. Man in his earliest stages expressed his emotions, as did the animals, by means of howls and moans. However he found out how to use his lips, his tongue and his teeth in combination with 'his throat and then he broke these sounds up and no longer were his utterances vague cries for he had invented speech whereby he could express his ideas. Man's great need now was a means of satisfactorily expressing his emotions. Through time he finally learned that both words and music could be made to express the same emotional ideas. Now he had invented song. This was a step of far reaching possibil- ities for rhythm, pitch and articulation underlie all musical art. Music may be described as the conventional expression of human emotion or feeling. The fourth factor, the musical instru- ment, was made to imitate then to sup- port and then to elaborate the vocal phrase. Thus we see that from this point in the History of Music we must study it' in four separate lines-tone schemes, the means of communicating music, the means of recording music and the devel- opement of music. MARGARET COWIE, 4A 'cgi The Popular Song RITERS of popular songs usually work in teams, that is, one man writes the words while the other writes the music. When a song becomes popular with the public most of the teams start writing songs of a similar nature. Take, for instance, Great Day. Soon after it became popular, another team wrote Oh Lord, Please Take Away the Rain. The similarity between these is that they are both adaptations of the negro spirituals which were so popular recently over the radio. Also, soon after Tiptoe Through the Tulips was published, another song Counting The Stars Alone appeared. These are both of the same type. Usually the original song is much more popular than those that follow it. The theme song is a common type of popular music. Most of us think that it dates back only to the advent of the talk- ies. This, however, is not so. When the picture Ramona was being shown, the theme song of the same name swept the country and added greatly to the popular- ity of the picture. Laugh, Clown, Laugh also had a theme song of the same title as the picture. In The Big Parade an- other silent, picture, the soldiers could be seen singing while the words were flashed on the screen and the orchestra played the same tunes. If we delved back still fur- ther into the history of motion pictures we might find that the theme song has a still earlier origin. There are usually spells of a certain type of music in which a great many songs of the same nature are published. At present we have songs of a fairly wide range. There are the snappy fox-trots like Hello Baby and Turn on the Heat and the dreamy Vallee type, as well as the light operatic works such as Lover Come Back To Me and The Desert Song. G. WILDMAN.