Commencement Weekend at Carthage is always exciting yet exhausting . . . fraught with the heavy emotional freight of too many farewells. But this year’s was much more so because of a gigantic farewell hanging over all of the proceedings. I’m referring of course to the impending departure of President F. Gregory Campbell and First Lady Barbara Campbell, who have tirelessly and enthusiastically served the Carthage community for 25 years. Such a good-bye is not said easily or quickly, and when it comes right down to it there probably isn’t any way to adequately convey the full extent of the school’s gratitude and sense of utter indebtedness. President Campbell took over the presidential reins at a point when Carthage was in serious financial jeopardy, with some observers predicting its complete demise. A quarter of a century later, the school continues to experience the most exciting, robust growth of its whole history, with President Campbell at the helm. In light of all that, was there any way the school could express sufficient gratitude and affection?
The answer, in fact, turned out to be a resounding YES when the school commissioned a musical work to be composed in honor of the Campbells. And for this very important assignment, they turned to Tom Vignieri, an ’83 Carthage alum and dear friend of my wife’s, who responded with an absolutely gorgeous and moving piece called “To Sing: A Carthage Hymn,” which received its world premiere two days ago at the New Alumni Convocation. Actually, the very first performance took place earlier that afternoon as a private performance for just the Campbells – who were asked to come to Siebert Chapel for what was described to them as a private presentation of some sort. Little did they know that when they walked into the upper room of the chapel, they would find the Carthage Choir and Wind Orchestra waiting there, ready and eager to perform this brand new composition for them. (Oh, to have been a fly on the wall!)
According to the program notes written by Tom himself: The composition took shape in part from discussions which Tom had with two professors in the music department, Dr. Peter Dennee (chair of the department) and Dr. Jim Ripley, director of instrumental music. As I understand it, it was Dr. Dennee’s idea to engage writer Charles Anthony Silvestri to write the text, which ended up being inspired by President Campbell’s own writings over the years. And it was Dr. Ripley’s suggestion for Tom to construct the main melodic theme from President Campbell’s initials. Eventually, the motive ended up being F-G-C-B (for “Fenton,” “Gregory,” “Campbell” and “Barbara”) and it proved to be an incredibly fertile idea from which the whole work emerged. Stir in some melodic excerpts from hymns like “A Mighty Fortress” and “For all the Saints” and you have all of the essential elements, which Tom combined and developed quite skillfully into a truly gorgeous and moving work. And it was moving not only because of Tom’s wonderful music, but also because of Mr. Silvestri’s poignant 14-line sonnet, which seemed to be written very much from the perspective of the typical college student. . . I don’t want to quote the entire text without having permission to do so, but here’s how it begins:
When faced with many questions, trials, and doubt,
When choices loom before us, challenging,
We try to understand what life’s about. . .
The text eventually acknowledges the help of mentors and the guidance and reassurance they give, and finishes with these radiant words:
Our quest: to learn, to journey, and to grow,
To make no little plans, to dream, to dare,
To sing our stories so that all can know:
This human life appears for such short space,
so LIVE and make the world a better place.
There was no piano part with this work, so my involvement with it was pretty much nil- except that at one point Dr. Garcia-Novelli was called out of town to deal with a personal matter and I was called upon to lead two Carthage Choir rehearsals in his absence. At the time I was just happy to be able to help him out in a very tough situation, but now in retrospect I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to play at least a tiny sliver of a role in the preparation of this work. And I got to see for myself just how much the students loved singing Tom’s music. And of course, they had to feel so honored to be playing such a central role in the giving of this major gift from the college to the Campbells And after all the extraordinary generosity which President Campbell has shown to the music department and the Carthage Choir in particular, it was only right for some of our music students to be part of this tribute.
So the work was first shared with the Campbells in a private presentation, with only the musicians and the officers of the college present for what I’ve heard was an incredibly moving and beautiful experience. The more public unveiling of the piece occurred a couple of hours later at the New Alumni Convocation – and then the Campbells requested that the work also be performed during Baccalaureate this morning. For those of us who heard the piece at Friday’s convocation, it was a real treat to get to hear it a second time and drink in its distinctive beauty yet again. And because Maestro Garcia-Novelli didn’t want to have to think about the spoken introduction that needed to be made (since it obviously wasn’t listed in the baccalaureate printed program) he asked me to read the introduction he had written. Once again, I felt so privileged to be given a small, peripheral role in this important moment.
There were other presentations and other presents over the weekend, including a lovely engraved glass sculpture given to the Campbells by the alumni association. . . and there are more accolades and gifts and commendations yet to come. . . but it’s hard to imagine anything else equaling the gift given by this talented composer and poet, the music faculty who helped shepherd this work to completion, and the talented students who devoted themselves so wholeheartedly to the task of learning it in a ridiculously short amount of time. If the Campbells ever doubted that they are deeply admired and even loved by the Carthage family, and especially by its musicians, I trust that this astonishing gift is more than enough to lay any such doubts to rest.
pictured above: I snapped this photo during today’s commencement exercises, when the Campbells were being acknowledged as honorary members of the class of 2012.