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30 Mar 04 - 05:52 AM (#1149776) Subject: BS: School songs From: JennieG Last weekend at the Loaded Dog club Pete Morton sang "To be a Farmer's Boy" - the one with the chorus "To plough and sow, to reap and mow, to be a farmer's boy" etc. Now I had forgotten, but a thousand years ago that tune was used for my school song; Tamworth High School in the wilds of north-western New South Wales. The school was established in 1922 and I believe the song soon followed. The first verse went:
With eager heart to play his part with all his main and might, He will do his best when hardly pressed so let the banner fly To add fresh fame unto her name and honour Tamworth High, And honour Tamworth High. More than that I cannot, alas, mercifully remember. Probably just as well really. And the high school that my sons attended used the tune "Marching Through Georgia". Any other school songs that you would like to share with the rest of the world? Cheers JennieG |
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30 Mar 04 - 07:59 AM (#1149877) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: Jeanie I love these old school songs, Jennie. Your Tamworth High School Song is a superb example. Good, inspiring, stirring stuff, indeed !!! My old grammar school in the 1960s, the Romford County High School for Girls (Headmistress: Miss Dorothy Bubbers; School motto not Latin, but, unusually, Middle English - Chaucer: 'Gladly Lerne, Gladly Teche') had not one, but two songs: The School Anthem ('Except the Lord Build the House') and The School Hymn ('Father, O Hear Us'). Our unofficial School Anthem, which we sang with much more gusto was the Dave Clark Five hit, "Glad All Over". Some of happiest memories of my life are yelling and stomping out this song over and over as we waited for the start of the end of term assemblies. The county high has long since become a girls' comprehensive and I doubt they sing any kind of official school song now. However, let courage be our watchword ! All is not lost ! The flame still burns brightly ! The banner still waves trimphantly in some areas of the British state school sector ! Here is The School Song of the Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School, written by its first headmistress, Mother Clare, for the founding of the school in 1900, and still sung with with great regularity ( I know, because I used to teach there, and my daughter is a pupil.) It has a delightfully 'Victorian parlour'-type tune and a charm all its own. Like your school song, Jennie, this is a classic: The very mention of our deal old school can thrill us all And many memories of the same we gratefully recall. The dear old school in many ways holds our allegiance fast. Its record of a length of days points to an honoured past. Chorus: Loyal and true to you, dear Convent home, Rises our song to you, dear Convent home. Duty shall be our cry, as on life's road we fly, All we have learnt from you, dear Convent home. The sturdy spirit of our school we always will maintain, A loyalty as true as steel, which seeks no selfish gain. We'll hand on our traditions, too, and ever strive to be A model fit to set before our brown posterity. [All together now]) Loyal and true to you, dear Convent home..... I love the 'brown posterity' bit ! That is because these girls were, are, and probably always will be, decked out from head to toe in brown uniform. The only exception: the multi-coloured stripey blazers, earning them the local nickname "The Deckchairs." Living up to the reputation of convent girls, no doubt there are other local nicknames, too, which as a teacher and parent I couldn't possibly know ;) I've mentioned this before on Mudcat: I've steered my daughter and friends in the direction of Tom Lehrer's 'Vatican Rag', and they are planning a Busby Berkley-type song and dance routine of it for their final year concert. Maybe the school will adopt it ??? - jeanie |
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30 Mar 04 - 10:19 AM (#1150004) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: greg stephens Have any new schools got school songs? say since WWII? |
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30 Mar 04 - 11:40 AM (#1150086) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: WFDU - Ron Olesko In my opinion, the greatest school song ever written has to be the Main Stein Song (University of Maine). How can you not like a song that deals with drinking? The Maine Stein Song Fill... the steins to dear old Maine, Shout 'til the rafters ring! Stand... and drink a toast once again! Let every loyal Maine man sing. Drink... to all the happy hours, Drink to the careless days; Drink... to Maine, our Alma Mater, The college of our hearts always. To the trees, to the sky! To the spring in its glorious happiness; To the youth, to the fire, To the life that is moving and calling us! To the Gods, to the Fates, To the rules of men and their destinies; To the lips, to the eyes, To the girls who will love us someday! Fill... the steins to dear old Maine, Shout 'til the rafters ring! Stand... and drink a toast once again! Let every loyal Maine man sing. Drink... to all the happy hours, Drink to the careless days; Drink... to Maine, our Alma Mater, The college of our hearts always. |
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30 Mar 04 - 12:16 PM (#1150113) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: selby any body got any farwell songs sung by 11year old as the leave primary for secondary school? Keith |
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30 Mar 04 - 12:18 PM (#1150114) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: Nerd Good thread. Hey, this should be above in the music section, shouldn't it? |
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30 Mar 04 - 12:33 PM (#1150129) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: GUEST,Shlio I don't know about primary school songs, but university college ones are often amusing. St. Edmunds Hall in Oxford is more commonly called Teddy Hall, so when they all get together you can guess what they sing! "If you go down to the woods today..." |
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30 Mar 04 - 12:35 PM (#1150135) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: Mrs.Duck My old secondary school - Woodford County High school had two school songs, both borrowed from other establishments. The first was 'Gaudeamus Igitur' and the second was 'Forty Years On' Nothing wrong with the little latin number but the Forty Years on had a chorus which went Follow up, follow up, follow up 'Till the fields ring again and again with the tramp of the 22 men!!!! Not bad for an all girls school. The school is still going strong and no doubt they churn the songs out every school birthday as they always did! |
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30 Mar 04 - 12:39 PM (#1150140) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: AllisonA(Animaterra) Our school hired a songwriter last year who was so successful with our fifth graders that we ended up with not one but two school songs! Both are stirring and singable. But I can still sing the alto and soprano parts for my high school song, which was written by a senior, class of 1934, :Hail, hail to Concord, dear old Concord High, We thee do honor, for your praises vie... blah, blah, blah" Allison |
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30 Mar 04 - 12:56 PM (#1150160) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: Jeanie That's a great, rousing song, Ron. I found a webpage where you can hear it here: Maine Stein Song I had no idea the song originated at the University of Maine. I've always known it (in the UK) as "Fill the Stein for Auld Lang Syne", with slight changes to the lyrics: "let every loyal voice now sing" "Drink to those who may be absent, Yet linger in our hearts always." Mrs. Duck - you and I have already swapped many stories comparing Woodford County High and Romford County High ( not least our embroidered gym knickers !). I'd forgotten about "The School Birthday" - our so-called treat was to each bring a spring bulb into school and plant it in the school grounds. Wow ! I wonder if WCHS girls were on the same lark ? - jeanie |
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30 Mar 04 - 01:21 PM (#1150197) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: ced2 Yes, one my schools had a song, just like the school itself it was approved! |
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30 Mar 04 - 01:59 PM (#1150238) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: fat B****rd At Clee Grammar (Matthew Humberstone Foundation School) we sang Gaudeamus etc and the school song was something like. Here's to the school Hurrah for Clee Here's to the school's prosperity May her star never set, may she shine brighter yet Long live the school of CLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE !! Something like that. I hated the place |
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30 Mar 04 - 02:26 PM (#1150262) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: Nerd I went to Columbia University in New York, where some of the songs were written by people like Rodgers, Hammerstein and Hart. But they still ended up being rather silly, if I remember. |
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30 Mar 04 - 02:28 PM (#1150264) Subject: RE: BS: School songs From: TheBigPinkLad St. Mary's Boy's Grammar & Secondary School, Darlington England Come from afar Come loyal, strong! Sons of the old school Come along! Give back the toast Till the echoes wake, St. Mary's for old time's sake! Hers was the hand that forged for our youth, Weapons of faith of honour and truth. Proud may we be Her spirit to boast: St. Mary's our school Rise to the toast! St. Mary's our school Rise to the toast! Christ, I can't believe I remembered that. |
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30 Mar 04 - 06:22 PM (#1150466) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: Burke Go, Hornets, go! We'll cheer you on to victory. Fight, Hornets, fight! And then the victors you will be. We'll cheer for the green, and then we'll cheer again for white. H-O-R-N-E-T-S Edina, Hornets--Fight, Fight, Fight. We had 2 fight songs, but I don't recall the other one right now. There was an Alam Matter as well, but I don't think anyone ever sang it. I was in the choir & I don't think we ever sang it. |
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30 Mar 04 - 06:45 PM (#1150492) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: Joe_F My highschool had no school song. Probably, any such suggestion would have evoked a sneer at "that rah-rah stuff". Caltech had In southern California, with grace and splendor bound, Where the lofty mountain peaks look out to lands beyond, Proudly stands our alma mater, glorious to see. We raise our voices proudly, hailing, hailing thee. Echoes ringing while we're singing Over land and sea. The halls of fame resound thy name, Noble CIT. I worked at Yale for a summer, and acquired a blue-&-white banner bearing the lovely anticlimax For God, for country, and for Yale, which ends the Yale song "Bright College Days". For additional amusement, it is to the tune of "Die Wacht am Rhein". My mother told me that when Chancellor Adenauer got an honorary degree there, he managed to keep a straight face. Harvard, which I flunked out of in 1959, has "Fair Harvard", containing the line First flower of their wilderness! star of their night! I wrote on my copy at the time: This is a beautiful line, which some negligent muse saw fit to bestonon an incompetent who has not even bothered to provide it with a rhyme. Its charm lies in the parallel between the 2 metaphors -- one flower in the wasteland, one star in the sky. But in fact this effect was probably contrary to the author's intention: he spoils it by attaching a modifier in the next line ["Calm rising through change and through storm!"] that can belong only to the 2nd image (tho punctuated as if it belonged to both). Indeed, by "flower" he most likely meant not the concrete count noun (= organ of plant), but the abstract mass noun (= fair result). To rewrite the song around this line wd be a good exercise for the senior class some year. |
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31 Mar 04 - 03:11 AM (#1150728) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: JennieG Jeanie, I love your convent song!!! I currently work for a private girls' school in Sydney and their school song is a shocker. I have only heard it once, fortunately,and I believe it was written many, many years ago (the school started in 1886) by an Old Girl. As such, it is Sacred and may Never Be Tampered With. Never mind that is is sheer murder to sing in a key that the human voice has never even contemplated. My sons' school had agricultural subjects, the school was originally founded with the idea of turning out strong bronzed Aussie farmers. As much as I can remember, the words to their song are (and remember this is sung to Marching Through Georgia): Hurrah, hurrah for the plough and the harrow and the hoe! Hurrah, hurrah for the wheat in the waving row! Etc. As Tom Lehrer said - "bright college days"...... Cheers JennieG |
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31 Mar 04 - 04:38 PM (#1151281) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: ScottishVoice Our school was founded in the late 1800s. (i forget exactly when - i should really know!!) but we had an amazing song! i still sing it when i get to the folk club in the town and everyone still remembers it. The School Song (The Gordon Schools, Huntly) By the storied walls of the Gordons hold The rivers twine as the wind to the sea Girt all around the circling hills Is the schools of the tower and the Linden tree where first we followed in learnings train Where first we played in the sun and the rain Oh proud is the fame of the Gordons name on many a hill you shall find their graves And theres many a lad by the tower who played Has passed in the splendor that crowns the brave! For freedom! For honour! Our loves resigned Let us harken the message they leave behind. When the river of time has borne us far And we hear the voice of the calling sea Let our hearts return in memorys hour To the school of the tower and the Linden tree Where first we followed in learnings train Where first we played in the sun and the rain. Never fails to get me going! Incase your wondering, Huntly is where the Clan Gordon stronghold was! |
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01 Apr 04 - 02:36 AM (#1151652) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: JennieG Scottish Voice, what a great rousing song. My maternal grandmother's name was Florence Gordon Nelson and she (and thus I) had Scottish ancestry although she was born in Oz. Cheers JennieG |
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01 Apr 04 - 03:55 AM (#1151706) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: Partridge See below for Morpeth Girls Grammar School where I attended from 1966 to 1973 and they were some of the happiest years of my life. We used to sing it at end of term assemblies and any other big events of the school calender. I was in the choir and on the secomnd verse I sang the alto part. On the last verse there was a lovely descant. I couldn't possible sing it again - it makes me cry buckets! Pat xx Our Father, by whose servants our house was built of old, whose hand hath crowned her children with blessing manifold, for thine unfailing mercies far-strewn along our way, with all who passed before us, we praise thy Name today. The changeful years unresting their silent course have sped, new comrades ever bringing in comrades' steps to tread; and some are long forgotten, long spent their hopes and fears; safe rest they in thy keeping, who changest not with years. They reap not where they labored; we reap what they have sown; our harvest may be garnered by ages yet unknown. The days of old have dowered us with gifts beyond all praise; our Father, make us faithful to serve the coming days. Before us and beside us, still holden in thine hand a cloud unseen of witness, our elder comrades stand: one family unbroken, we join, with one acclaim, one heart, one voice uplifting to glorify thy Name. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Words: George Wallace Briggs, 1920 Music: Commemoration, Wolvercote Meter: 76 76 D |
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01 Apr 04 - 09:53 AM (#1151934) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: Rapparee The first school song of Christian Brothers High School, Quincy, Illinois, 1959 -- the tune is the same as the U of Minnesota's Golden Gophers march or whatever they call it up there in the frozen Northland: Christian Brother, hats off to thee To our colors true we shall ever be (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee), Firm and strong and united are we, Rah rah rah for Cee Bee Queue Rah ra hoo-rah, Rah for the gold and blue. And the second, the Washgton and Lee Swing: When the CB Raiders get in line We're going to win again another time For that dear old school we love so well We're going to yell and yell and yell We're going to yell like hell! We'll (something something something) We're going to beat that team and raise the score We're going to knock that team right in the dust YES WE MUST! Fight, CB High! The last was called "The Fight Song". Unfortunately, the missing line will come back to me. Probably around 2 a.m. |
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02 Apr 04 - 12:00 AM (#1152517) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: LadyJean The Heamistress at the Ellis School for Girls for most of the time I was there was quite an anglophile. We had a sister school in England. (Edgebascombe College in Birmingham) And we all learned to sing William Blake's "Jerusalem", "And did those feet in ancient times etc." Our school song included the line "We vere the glory of thy name." I've never been sure how one veres. But we did. I did not know Ellis's best known alumna, Annie Dillard. She was before my time. But we have a couple of English teachers in common, and they LIKED me! |
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02 Apr 04 - 02:44 AM (#1152568) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: Mark Cohen I heard a rumor that the Ithaca College song goes: Far above Cayuga's waters There's an awful smell Some say it's Cayuga's waters Some say it's Cornell But what do I know? I went to Princeton. Tune ev'ry heart and ev'ry voice Bid ev'ry care withdraw Let all with one accord rejoice In praise of Old Nassau [at this point you take your hat off and hold it over your heart, then extend your arm out to the side, then back over your heart and repeat this gesture once each measure -- I kid you not] In praise of Old Nassau, my boys Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! Her sons will give while they shall live Three cheers for Old Nassau Aloha, Mark |
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02 Apr 04 - 03:58 AM (#1152605) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: Jeanie I love that idea of the Hat Aerobics, Mark. Nothing so exciting happens at British universities. Just occasionally the members of the Senate might bow and doff their hats to each other and mumble in a thoroughly British way, but that's as far as it goes. Presumably, if you are singing this song with all the vigour that the lyrics demand, you are in danger of punching your neighbour where it hurts, especially a short 'Old Nassau Boy' next to a tall one. Does Princeton provide body protection ? - jeanie |
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02 Apr 04 - 05:48 AM (#1152672) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: Flash Company My old school was Sir John Deane's Grammar School in Northwich, Cheshire, where we had in my first 2 or 3 years a headmaster called Charles Keble who wrote our school song, Floret, Floruit, Floreat Wittona. I can't remember much of it, unusually for me, but do recall that some of the lads amended the words to relate to the local football team Witton Albion. CK also wrote a Gilbert & Sullivan pastiche called Petronella or The Smugglers of Torridore which I recall as very good. FC |
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02 Apr 04 - 09:17 AM (#1152751) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: Roger the Skiffler My old headmaster obviously felt he should have been running a public school and one of his first tasks was to write a gruesome school song with the head of Music supplying a "rousing" tune. Thankfully, time and CRS have deleted it from my brain but I do remember that we little dears had "alternative" words for it and each year at Speech Day a higher proportion of the school was singing the wrong words until by the time I left only the choir was allowed to perform it in front of the assembled dignitaries. The head was a C of E vicar but also a keen caner. He usually caused a walk-out by Labour councillors by attacking Comprehensive Schooling in his Speech Day addresses. If I say the school colours were yellow and black and the badge a Staffordshire Knot and a kinky bridge, fellow W.Midlanders will know whereof I speak! RtS |
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03 Apr 04 - 12:45 AM (#1153352) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: LadyJean According to my father, the Princeton boys used to sing, Falsetto)Pekinese! Pekinese! woof woof woof Eli Yale! The original song begins Bulldog Bulldog bow wow wow. Considering how very unintelligent bulldogs are, thought terribly sweet, I'm not sure that they are the proper mascot for a pretigious institution of higher learning. |
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03 Apr 04 - 11:38 AM (#1153586) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: Susan of DT There are several Cornell songs in the DT. The more interesting ones are the less official ones. A friend wrote a prody of the Mickey Mouse Club song about engineers flunking out and the Song of the Classes is also cute. |
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10 Oct 09 - 01:12 PM (#2742882) Subject: RE: Non-BS: School songs From: Acorn4 The Skinners' School, Tunbridge Wells Now hands about, good leopards all And sing a rousing chorus In praise of all those comrades here And those who went before us, Now to its lay all hearts beat true The gallant hearts that love us So fortune fend each absent friend While there's a sun above us... Chorus:- Sing leopards sing Floreat Sodalitas Little matter well or ill Sentiment is more than skill Sing together with a will Floreat Sodalitas Dalitas Pardorum The ivy climbs by brick and stone, About the buttressed hall And memory weaves a charm to keep Her servitors in thrall And whiskered leopards think with awe Of Babel Mandeb's Straits Where in the days of long ago They wrestled with the fates Sing leopards sing... So here's a toast before we part The schoolhouse by the lieu And may its friends be stout of heart Its enemies be few And we will pledge our noble selves To use our best endeavour That while the merry world goes round The School may stand forever.. Sing leopards sing by Cuthbert.H.Cronk ( I kid you not!) There were of course the usual obscene variants sung by testosterone fuelled pupils which I will leave to your imagination. |