Professor of Music Benjamin Locke, lovingly dubbed “Doc Locke” by students, has been working since July of this year to put together a new songbook celebrating the bicentennial that includes some of Kenyon’s most important pieces of music.
From the traditional New Student Sing to the number of a cappella groups on campus, music has always been a significant part of Kenyon’s history. Because the last songbook “Songs of Kenyon” was compiled in 1957, some previously included compositions aren’t particularly relevant to the modern campus. “Much of the music in this book was done for four-part male chorus, but there wasn’t an arrangement that had included sopranos and altos,” Locke said in an interview with the Collegian. He explained that the songs arranged when Kenyon was an all-male institution aren’t particularly inclusive of all non-tenor and bass singers on campus. Therefore, much of Locke’s work involved rearranging several songs so they can be performed by the Chamber Singers or other mixed singing groups on campus.
Moreover, some songs with links to Greek Life from the 1957 book will not be moved into the new book. According to Locke, most of these songs are from fraternities that are no longer present on campus. “In the earlier days, the fraternities really ran the school practically. They were very, very prevalent. So their songs were sung, and everybody knew them because they sang them for each other,” Locke said.
Fraternities used to have anthems for each chapter that they would rehearse and perform. However, those songs are less relevant on campus today, as fraternities no longer perform them. Locke told us that he “decided to leave out and move on without the fraternity songs” to make space for new additions to the book. The old songbook also features songs that might not be deemed appropriate nowadays. “There’s one called the ‘Freshman Ditty,’ but that was done during a time when hazing was still being done to the freshmen,” Locke told the Collegian. “They had to sing that song while crawling on their hands and knees in their pajamas.”
That being said, several traditional songs will be included into the new version. The four iconic songs from the New Student Sing — “Kokosing Farewell,” “Philander Chase,” “Stand Up and Cheer” and “The Thrill (Alma Mater)” — will be included. Doc Locke was particularly excited about a song titled “Kenyon Men,” which is “written from the point of view of one of these young women looking at all these wonderful Kenyon men, it is so campy. I said, ‘this has to live on.’”
The new songbook will also mark the bicentennial and include songs that Locke composed inspired by poems written by past Kenyon students. Marta Evans ’06 wrote a poem titled “The Height of This Hill” describing the journey and passing of time on Kenyon’s campus. Locke took the poem and transformed it into a song for the We Are Kenyon fundraising campaign, and noted that both the Chamber Singers and the Community Choir have been rehearsing it in preparation for their combined concert on Dec. 7. “Hopefully, it will align with the release of the book,” Locke said. He also wants to include photos of campus, the people who inspired some of the music and those who have been working on the book with him. He will also be including some important history around some of the songs.
Not only will the book serve as a historical document to preserve these songs in Kenyon’s history, but it is also being made for practical reasons. Over the years, Locke has received requests for quartet or piano versions of the songs for weddings, funerals and other events for people related to Kenyon. “The book is to be practical, anybody who buys the book would then have these right there for them if they wanted to use it in that way,” Locke said. “People connect to these songs and these songs connect people to Kenyon. Singing is a part of what Kenyon does, everyone knows the songs.”
