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Creator: Conklin, Ruth, Pearson, Homer, Warthin, Scott, Post, C. Gordon
Date: [After 1966]
Text: d%T GENIEVE LAMBON 1886 ~ 1966 In the year 1887, the Constitution of the United States had been in operation for less than a century. Only forty States comprised the Union. Grover Cleveland was President ad Morrison Waite was Chief Justice. David B. Hill was Governor of New York and in his annual message to the Legislature he recommended "the abolition of an unnecessary office." Abroad, Victoria was Queen and the Marquis of Salisbury was her prime mbnister. William I was Emperor of...
Show mored%T GENIEVE LAMBON 1886 ~ 1966 In the year 1887, the Constitution of the United States had been in operation for less than a century. Only forty States comprised the Union. Grover Cleveland was President ad Morrison Waite was Chief Justice. David B. Hill was Governor of New York and in his annual message to the Legislature he recommended "the abolition of an unnecessary office." Abroad, Victoria was Queen and the Marquis of Salisbury was her prime mbnister. William I was Emperor of Germany and Alexander III, Tsar of Russia. . Only twenty-nine years earlier, Charles Darwin had published his Origin_g§ Species. Karl Marx had been dead but four years. And in 1887, that supreme revolutionary, Gottlieb Daimler, was operating for the first time a motor car propelled by a petrol engine. In this same year, in the cool silence of a little Vermont town, in sight of the Braintree Mountains and close by the gentle waters of the Third Branch of the White River, Genieve Lamson was born. Miss Lamson's ancestors settled in Randolph in 1791. They were farmers; and good, solid middleclass citizens; hardy, self- reliant, independent, ad God-fearing. One uncle ran the farm, another became a highly successful hardware merchant. Her father purchased and operated s retail furniture store. As was customary in thee days, he was also the local undertaker and funeral director. Before 1900, Miss Lamson's father invested money in gold mining which turned out to be worthless; so that while he was able to send his oldest child and only son to college, he could not afford to do the same for his three daughters. Armed only with a high-school diploma, Miss Lammon taught for four terms in the rural schools around Randolph. On a Sunday afternoon she would drive her horse and sleigh some miles out to a tiny village where for five days a week she met her charges in a one-room schoolhouse; tended a pot- bellied stove; and gave instruction, not only in reading, writing, and arithmetic, but, by way of MoGuffey, in the virtues of temperace, industry, self-control, stick-to-itive- ness, mercy, and honesty. 36 GEMIEVE LAMON - continued The following Friday afternoon would see her return to Randolph. During the week she would live with e local family. , Miss Lamson spoke occasionally of those drives through deep snows, of the biting winds that carried the flakes against her face, of the crunch of steel runners upon hard-packed snow. Finding that she liked teaching, Miss Lamson attended a normal school in Springfield, Massachusetts, for one year. Then for five years she taught in the Roselle Park, Mew Jersey, high school. Aware of the need for a college education, Miss Lamson ventured even deeper into that great area west of the Hudson River and matriculated at the young University of Chicago. Here, she received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1920 at the age of thirty-three. After a year of teaching in a private school, Miss Lamson returned to Chicago for a Master's degree. In 1922, she cams to Vassar where she remained until her retirement thirty years later. Miss Lamson was an economic geographer. She was at first associated with the Department of Geology. In 1934 a Depart- ment of Geography was established and Miss Lamson was installed as chairman. This position she held throughout her tenure. Her published works include "Geographic influences in the Early History of Vermont" (1924), "A Study of Agricultural Populations in Selected Vermont Towns" (1931), and parts here and there in the Dutchess Couty Works Progress Admin- istration Guide Book of which project she was the director. Miss Lamson was a delegate to the International Geographical Union Congress in Warsaw, Poland, in 1934, and in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1938. For twenty years, she was head resident in Lathrop House. Miss Lanson also distinguished herself as Editor-in-chief of the Vassar Journal of Undergraduate Studies. Miss Lamson in her "Study of Agricultural Populations in selected Vermont Towns" described the Vermont farmer, and in doing so, described herself. Me is, she wrote, "a person of reserve and a strong sense of privacy. His characteristic independence is based upon an inherent self-respect. He asks V $7 GERIIVE‘LAMBO - continued no 'oddd of society.‘ He will deal generously with the unfortunate, and dispense hospitality to the stranger, with no apologies for the coditions of his hospitality. At the same time he will drive s shrewd bargain and is so thrifty that he has earned the reputation of being ‘close.’ A pro- found conservative, the farmer clings to the established order. Me accepts change cautiously, and only from conviction based on experience. His conservatism," she continued, "expresses itself in his code of morals and religion. There is a good deal of the English Puritan in the Vermont farmer. He has a keen sense of right and wrong, and a straightforward honesty. He respects education. Me appreciates initiative and ability. He has a profound sense of community responsibility." One thing she did not mention. In every Vermonter, buried deep within his soul, is the spirit of Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain boys. This spirit manifested itself in Miss Lamson when she rebelled against the Republicanism of her forefathers, against the Republicanism.of her immediate family, of hr relations to the farthest remove, and of her friends. She flirted with socialism in the images of Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas, and came to rest, finally, in the arms of Franklin D. Roosevelt-~figuratively speaking. when Miss Lamson retired she retuned to the family home in Randolph which in spirit she had never left. She plunged immdiately into the affairs of the community. She was the historian of the Bethany Congregational Church, a trustee of the Vermont Historical Society, a sponsor of the Vermont Symhony Orchestra, and a prominent member of the Randolph Garden Club. Almost to the time of her death she sang in the church choir. A - Last May at the State meeting of the Vermont Division of the American Association of University Women, Miss Lamson was honored by having e national scholarship named for her. Thus, on September 25th, there can to an end a useful life which covered monumental changes in the story of man. True to her backgroud, Miss Lamaon represented the best of tradi- tions; but she had learned a lesson from Lincoln: The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present . . . As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. Ruth Conklin Homer Pearson Scott Warthin Gordon Post, Chairman
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Creator: Churgin, Betty, Deschere, John, Pearson, Donald M., Pearson, Homer, Groves, Earl
Date: [After 1966]
Text: 83 BORIS KOUTZEN 1901 - 1966 The sudden death of Boris Koutzen on December 10, 1966, removed a vigorous participant from the American musical scene-and an esteemed colleague from the ranks of Vassar College. Mr.Koutzen was a member of the Vassar faculty from 1944 until his retire- ment in June 1966. As those who knew him well might have pre- dicted, his was not a typical retirement, for he continued to maintain his usual heavy schedule of composing, conducting and teaching. His death came...
Show more83 BORIS KOUTZEN 1901 - 1966 The sudden death of Boris Koutzen on December 10, 1966, removed a vigorous participant from the American musical scene-and an esteemed colleague from the ranks of Vassar College. Mr.Koutzen was a member of the Vassar faculty from 1944 until his retire- ment in June 1966. As those who knew him well might have pre- dicted, his was not a typical retirement, for he continued to maintain his usual heavy schedule of composing, conducting and teaching. His death came just a few hours after he had conducted a dress rehearsal with the Chappaqua Orchestra which he had founded in 1958. Born in Uman, Russia, in 1901, Boris Koutzen appeared at age eleven as violin soloist with the orchestra at Chersson. At seventeen he won a nationwide contest for the post of first violinist of the Moscow State Opera House Orchestra. He also became a member of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra directed by Serge Koussevitsky. After studies in violin with Leo Zetlin and in composition with Reinhold Gliére he was graduated from the Moscow Conservatory and went to Berlin where he made his professional debut in 1922. He never returned to Russia but in 1924 came to the United States with, to quote him "just enough money in my pockets to join the Musicians‘ Union." He not only joined the union but almost immediately embarked upon the multifaceted career of violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher which was to be his life. He became a member of the Philadelphia Orches- tra which was then at its zenith under Leopold Stokowski. And he joined the staff of the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music where he was head of the violin department, director of the ensemble program, and conductor of the orchestra. He remained with the conservatory for thirty-seven years and with the Philadelphia Orchestra until 1938 when he became a charter member of the elite N.B.C. orchestra which was being assembled for Arturo Toscanini. He married Inez Merck, a pianist, who like himself was descended from a long line of musicians. Their children, George and Nadia, cellist and violinist respectively, continue the musical family tradition. During his initial season with the Philadelphia Orchestra Boris Koutzen conducted that group in a performance of his first symphonic composition. Frequent concert tours of the United States increased his stature as a violinist; and a 7 _3q BORIS KOUTZEN (continued) steady stream of compositions in almost every medium won him wide acclaim as a composer. His symphonic works, for example, were performed by virtually every major American orchestra - the Philadelphia, Boston, N.B.C., Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and New York to name but a few - and by many foreign groups. His Second String_Quartet won the award of the Society for Publication of American Music and his symphonic poem "Valley Forge" won the Juilliard Foundation award. - e - Vassar began to benefit from this extraordinarily rich and varied background when, in 1944, Boris Koutzen joined the faculty to teach violin. His total dedication to the high- est ideals of his art, his warmth and wit, his inspiring teaching, and his understanding won him the imediate and enduring respect and affection of his students and colleagues. He immeasurably enriched the Vassar musical climate by his many appearances as solo violinist, in chamber music with his colleagues and others, and in performances of his own compositions. Within a few years after his arrival his violin students had so grown in number and in skill that he was able to organize the Vassar Orchestra which greatly extended the training and experience available to students. No one who came to hear their first concert in 1948 was pre- pared for the high level of their achievement. And with each successive year the group seemed to surpass its earlier goals. Generations of Vassar students will never forget his Wednes- day afternoon orchestra rehearsals, where, through a combina- tion of chicanery, cajoling, and sometimes, sheer terror he made the members play better than they were able, and opened for them the door to a great and lasting musical experience. Upon the occasion of his retirement, his colleagues and guest artists presented in his honor a concert of his own composi- tions and cited his "distinguished service to music at Vassar." Under Mr. Koutzen's last will and testament the Music Library is to receive as a legacy, his complete manuscripts and sketches which will be of great use to future students and scholars and will serve as a testament to one who loved Vassar and was beloved. Respectfully submitted, Betty Churgin John Deschere Donald M. Pearson Homer Pearson XVII 120-121 Earl Groves, Chairman
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Creator: Coover, James B., de Madariaga, Pilar, Groves, Earl W., Pearson, Donald M., Pearson, Homer
Date: [After 1965]
Text: lé CARL PARRISH 1904 — 1965 Carl Parrish was a distinguished scholar--an elder statesman among present-day musicologists--who was active and influential in the American Musicological Society. He was a specialist in medieval and renaissance music, and in the music of Haydn. He was well in touch with other areas of research in music, and was interested in the development of music library resources. He had received a Fulbright Grant in 1952-53 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1958-59. His books...
Show morelé CARL PARRISH 1904 — 1965 Carl Parrish was a distinguished scholar--an elder statesman among present-day musicologists--who was active and influential in the American Musicological Society. He was a specialist in medieval and renaissance music, and in the music of Haydn. He was well in touch with other areas of research in music, and was interested in the development of music library resources. He had received a Fulbright Grant in 1952-53 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1958-59. His books include the "Masterpieces of Music before 1750," "A Treasury of Early Music," "The Notation of Medieval Music," and translations of the "Dictionary of Musical Terms," by Johannes Tinctoris and the "Thoroughbass Method" of Hermann Keller. He was devoted to teaching in a career which he began as pianist and composer. Before coming to Vassar College, he had taught at Wells College, Fisk University, Westminster Choir College, Union Theological Seminary and Pomona College. While at Vassar he taught during numerous summers at the University of Southern California, Union Theological Seminary and the University of Minnesota. His interest in the problems of students was given particular emphasis in those four years when Carl and his wife served as housefellows in Raymond. To those who knew him as a friend as well as professionally, he was a quietly compassionate man whose confidence was to be sought and respected. He had a broad range of interests. In recollec- tion, discussions with him concerning fine points of historical analysis in music, and concerning developments in other fields, can be contrasted with afternoons spent with him in Yankee Stadium or in watching him play ball with his son. His sense of humor was perceptive and generous. His contemplation of ultimate concerns marked both his social awareness and his faith. It was a privilege, not easily gained, to know this man. And it is our privilege, at this moment, to try to call your attention to the whole man. . James B. Coover Pilar de Madariaga Earl W. Groves Donald M. Pearson Homer Pearson XVII 2
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Creator: Pearson, Homer, Campbell, Mildred, Swain, Barbara
Date: [After 1960]
Text: ,1 Jcszt 1": Lllrff Psi \ :‘. Q2 Z-1 Q P1 5"‘ CD \ WP? i 1960 $1 *~; :=* O PO *9‘ C3323 4 ('1 LT’ *1! ' ‘I’ ‘<1 Q (1) -w _rce was appointed to the Vassar Kusic Department in ~ Professor George Coleman Sow vtosc initials turn on * shove Skinner Hell. For 32 years, until his écsth on ipril 23, 1960, John Tcirce taught the art of sinqing, the art of understanding song, and the art of group singing. He took pert, with deliberation and with devotion, in the life of the...
Show more,1 Jcszt 1": Lllrff Psi \ :‘. Q2 Z-1 Q P1 5"‘ CD \ WP? i 1960 $1 *~; :=* O PO *9‘ C3323 4 ('1 LT’ *1! ' ‘I’ ‘<1 Q (1) -w _rce was appointed to the Vassar Kusic Department in ~ Professor George Coleman Sow vtosc initials turn on * shove Skinner Hell. For 32 years, until his écsth on ipril 23, 1960, John Tcirce taught the art of sinqing, the art of understanding song, and the art of group singing. He took pert, with deliberation and with devotion, in the life of the college and the community, His kindlinoss and his in- tegrity, the open hospitality of his home, came to be community assets, depended on and taken for granted. His work produced substantial results, opening professicssl careers in music to e score of young women, providing private resources of éeliqhh for hundreds of others. Two unpretentious books, The ﬁrt of ’ frggren ﬁekipg, l9§l, its grt cg gipfigg, 1956, record some of tie seistisies behind his still cs‘s teécber of voice, sod tie wide koowledqe of tie literature of song, tie taste that renged discriminstingly from folk song to lieder, from opera to con- temporary cantata. Ttc devotion cf sevorel thousand Glee Club mewbcrs beers witness to his personal success as a choral director. ’~ V % ‘Q U) \£) <3 -fl" (IQ *0 1»-II C) E-’° $1 I3 He was born in test Eosbury, ﬁasssckusetts. Qﬂe re- ceived his early m ~l education through private instruction in and moor Boston, perticulerly in voice work with Stephen Sumner Townsend, a tcecter well known in 1910, end later in work on cretorio under Fmll Yollonheuor, the director of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society. The accounts of his early years ere full of ectivities connected with church music, es quartet member, soloist or musical oircctor in Unitarian, Baptist, Universelist, Presbyterian or Confregctionel churches in eastern Yasseckusctts. The roster of his recitels§begins - in 19lh,’with an appearance st tke Second Gongreéetionel Church in test Heebury, and includes e debut recital at Steincrt Hell in Boston, later recitals in larger Boston hells, appearances with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Chorel_¥usic Society, and many concerts ttroughout Hes England and Tove Sootia.§ In these years he was e member of the_friendly circle of Boston musicians which included such well known artists snd\tcschers es Arthur Foote, Charles Loeffler and Thomas thitney‘Suretto; 3 L V‘ . :1 ‘ ' \ ; : In 192h he was appointed by Ernest Bloch es heed of tﬁc voice . ¢ department st the Cleveland Institute of Music, where to remained for ttrce years. In 1927 he wont to Europe for e year of con- centrated study, of phonetics, tkoory, conducting and voice, working for many months in Peris with the greet French tenor Edmond Clement, and leter in London with Sir GoorQe,§enschel. He came to Vassar upon his return from Paris, and soon began to take pert in the musical life of the Hueson Valley as he . _ \ . . 1 1 ; ; 1 l 1 F , \ I I '\ 1 ~" -- \ ‘:2 _*' ,' ‘\\ /i. .' “ I ~ 93 JOHN WILL . (Continued) i I-1 {Zr c "Y1 I111 F-1 fl.) Q .11 bod token part in that of the Horrimac as s younger man. Us become director of music st tho First Presbyterian Church in Poughkcopsio; for eleven years ho supervised c public school music festival hold at the college; he served as president of the Dutctess County Husicsl Association from l9c2-l9h9. Ho took port with gusto in faculty productions of Gilbert and Sullivan, Trial by Jury and Qﬁomfripccss Ida. During vsrious sumnors he~3i¥€Et5€“EForal sees; tsG§Et"€5i§o and Advanced Choral Conducting at the University of Vermont, and once, in 1933, st the University of Ksshington. He spent l936~37 in iunich, again working concentrstedly on phonetics, voice, opera end, this time, on German style. In 19h? he suffered s severe tccrt attack. Thoresftor, his activities were restricted to winters of work and summers of rest, but the ton years which to was granted to live were yosrs of con~ tinuco growth sci fresh achievement in musical understanding, and in self realization. John Peirce was s “er Englsndcr ingrsin.* As the oldost son of a widely known village ooctor in s region where the town moot- ing soc the church arc still living institutions, ho cams natur- slly by his sense of personal responsibility, his conccrn with inoivicusls, with tieir toelthy qrorth and tkoir participation in satisfying social cotivity. ?ecorstions of students will reocnbcr tis patient pcrsistccco in soekinq for tteir iniividual quality of vocal csprossivouoss, in guiding ttom ttrougﬁ”tE3*' literature of music towards tte dcvelopmeut of tioir own taste. Generations of Gloo Club members will recall tho pissstre of discovering the existenoo of lontoverdi, Rsmosu, Gluck and Ecydn, through singing in tho choral productions of Orfoo, or Iohioenio in Tsuris of Castor and Pollux or The Creﬁtfoﬁ — : _.A,__’ _A_,,_.-... ii _ 3 -_,_..,_i. _, -.,- ,-._ ,, _._._,_,,,,_.,- ____,,_ E€SitiEu§?§s5§s5ts“cs;¢c"Lc”U§scsi65c”s€th his G153 in the bolief that to boar a small modest port in a lcrio beautiful work was good for mind soc body. Join Peirce was not on ottentuctod csttcte; hi§*Tomilisr slouch and the hunch of his shouldor romccﬁcd tkoco wio know, that in his youth he was a semi~profoscioosl pitckor, that his passion for bssoboll and. his devotion to t Boston Rod Sex kept him by the radio for hours during tte _ zyirc season. ‘Tennis, too, woo so ovocsticn, at which to raised sis trroc sons, one by one, to boot him. He was happy to bo sociable. lit? unaffected cordislity he and ﬁrs. Peirco opened ttoir doors, put their house st otters‘ disposal, offered simple moat and drink, comfort and leushtcr. The grcstcst contribution of his tcoching is probably to have soot out into the comsunity scores of woman able to be lcscers and shorors in musical enterprises in tteir towns and cities; his greatest contribution to Poughkeepsie is pertsps the range of his local friendships. ¢ -0 U :2‘ F-4 O " ."~v -O His Glee Club work was his greatest pleasure. He particularly on§oyed the preparation of Xonsclssokn's Eliish, for this year's final concert; to tad sun? it in Boston, in his early yccrs of I ‘F s Q ix‘-av A QM; ,, .- . . _. _. ~__._ .__.._..-._...... __.__ /-" k“. _z* . .£ \ I 1 \. 4 .~ _.......... .. 4\ *~ \ \ ; 9;» JOFH TILLIA? PEIZCB (Ccn€lnued) ' _ I concertizing; he heard, t¥cu§h Lo did not dire tho fine production of it in Berton, four da?s before h; ueath. The perfornance of it at Vassar on Kay" wkich was to havé been in his honor upon his retirement, ~~_ belhis appropriate §<~,ﬂ;\_~1 r\_~v-.1 1: 1 .,1k»-.1L..L 1.; Q. S‘ JomJ\' .15 P4 -J’ C3 C1‘ § I Pearson H, dred Campbell Barbara Swain l I"-*4 , ¥-"I .29 O l-' Q v 4 XV - 2143 - 21111
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