Handel's 'Messiah' beat football As An Alumnus from 1936, I have been getting literature telling of the wonderful people and programs in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Currently there is all the hype for the football team. I saw only one college football game the opener in 1934 against Michigan State, which was a big upset.
I sold my student tickets to eat a little better. I was working in the Women's League Cafeteria, which I thought was the better place for good food. The men and women with whom I worked provide the only socialization for an engineering student in an arcane major Engineering Mechanics.
It also provided an incident which shaped my later life: at a picnic in the summer of 1936, 20 to 30 were enjoying a songfest mostly of the popular tunes of the day, until someone started, "Halleluiah." It was not familiar to me, but I was entranced. Not all were singing the tune as I could hear it, but I was told that this was a famous and familiar chorus from Handel's Messiah, and was in four-part harmony.
When I graduated and went home, I joined a church choir, more or less under lenient tests. When I was transferred to the Cleveland office, I found a church near my rooming house that had a choir that sounded great, and the bulletin asked for those interested to try out on the following Wednesday. Eventually, this choir was one of two asked to provide a nucleus for a chorus to accompany the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell in Beethoven's "Ninth."
I would like to hear from and about some of the men and women who worked at the League in 1934-1936. We had some memorable visitors that I recall, Lily Pons and Helen Jepson; Alla Nazimova and Romney Brent. We got to see them up close, and wonder.
A secondary effect has been writing verses for the choirs in which I have sung. One I like best is:
You like to sing, and I like to sing,
We sing in our church choir.
Some sing high and some sing low,
And some sing even higher.
At times, we sing like angels,
Run chills up and down our spine.
And then we will tell ourselves:
"One of those voices is Mine."
Alex Hudson '36
Cleveland