Well, I can’t say that it was quite as sensational as the night that Marilyn Monroe serenaded JFK, but eleven Carthage students and I did our part to make today a most memorable birthday for Carthage’s new president, Dr. Gregory Woodward. But it was a fun gig that very nearly did not happen at all.
The story begins with one of those confessions that will come as not the slightest surprise to anyone who knows me- I am criminally negligent when it comes to checking my voice mail, and especially when it comes to checking voice mail at WGTD. Part of the reason is that I do almost all of my work at a computer that is nowhere near my phone, and most days my exit is frantic and hurried and stopping first to check my voice mail is not an option. (Of course, checking my voice mail at some other point during the three hours I’m there IS an option, but I somehow don’t get around to it.) But yesterday, Dave Cole informed me that my mailbox was too full to accept new messages – and when I looked at the phone and saw the number “19” I knew I had to take care of it. And amidst the messages was one from two weeks earlier from Sue Howell, the new secretary to President Woodward- asking if it would be possible to gather a small group of singers together to sing happy birthday to him during the noon hour on September 20th. I looked down at my calendar. It was September 19th. I gulped, picked up the phone, and called her right back – and when it went to her voice mail, I apologized for the huge delay and said that if she hadn’t already given up on me and already booked N’Sync or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I was more than willing to make something happen. Within a half hour, she had called back to say that no other alternatives had been pursued, and if I was willing, my help would be most appreciated.
What to do?
Several possibilities flitted through my head, but the simplest route was to bring this before my own voice students, most of whom I was going to be seeing in over the noon hours in studio class. I would see how many of them happened to be free the next day at 12:15 to serenade the new President. Not surprisingly, they were eager to do it- and fortunately, all of them were available. . . and miracle or miracles, they were a perfect balance of 3, 3, 3, and 3 with the TTBB split. It was as if it were divine providence. But what to sing? Yes, I could whip up happy birthday in 4-part harmony, and the guys could have probably improvised one their own. But somehow the occasion merited something more. If I was going to have these talented men in one room, I was not about to waste their talents on happy birthday. So I said that we would take fifteen minutes after Carthage Choir rehearsal later that afternoon, and put something together.
Just what that “something” would be, I had no idea.
I had half an hour between the end of studio and the start of my next lesson, so I bopped over to Einstein’s for a bagel – and as I thought about the afternoon ahead of me, I began thinking about the Gilbert & Sullivan we would be singing in musical theater workshop – which got me thinking, in turn, about one of my favorite men’s choruses, which I hope we might still be able to add to the program: “He is an Englishman.” (It’s featured in the film “Chariots of Fire.”) And that’s what gave me the idea of the guys singing some sort of stately, elegant song in honor of President Woodward which might have a little bit of sly humor woven into it. And as I munched on my Honey Whole Wheat bagel and sipped on my Very Berry smoothie, the song just started to come to me like a gift from above- in a way that has happened on only a couple of occasions in my entire life. By the time I was on my way back to my office, I had the words to one verse completely finished and the start to a second. And although I did my best to give my full attention to Chase Tonar in his voice lesson, i must confess that a small part of my brain was busy trying to figure out what could rhyme with “all our hearts.” (“more false starts”? “throwing darts”? “auto parts”?) Interestingly enough, it was during Nick Huff’s lesson that I started to hear in my head what would become the melody of the piece. Something about hearing Nick’s lovely high tenor voice soaring was all I needed- and the second his lesson was over, I jotted the notes down so as not to forget them.
It was 2:45 – time for musical theater workshop – and all I had was the start to a song. Fortunately, one of our piano students, John Pendray, was in class that day and prepared to play piano if I needed him to – and we were scheduled to have Matt Boresi begin staging a couple of the pieces … so once I warmed everyone up and ran them through the two pieces in question, I was out of there- retreating to my office where closed the door, sat at the piano, and hammered out a second verse and the start to the third. If I could have just worked straight through until Carthage Choir rehearsal, I would have been sitting in clover. Unfortunately, I had a 4:00 phone interview with an author over at WGTD, and as I was driving from Carthage to the station I was trying to work out the kinks in verse three- and at every stop sign or stoplight I would grab my notebook and scribble a few more words. Amazingly, by the time 4:00 rolled around I had pretty much finished the lyrics- but I had yet to begin writing some semblance of a readable, decipherable score. So here’s yet another confession: as I did the phone interview with a distinguished history professor from Stanford University, I was also writing out the parts to my song- one of the nuttiest and riskiest Split Brain Projects I have ever attempted. Fortunately, the hardest parts – the lyrics and the main melody – were already finished, and this part of the operation… filling in the other notes of each chord ….felt a little like paint-by-number, especially because I was trying to keep it simple for the guys, knowing that we would essentially have one rehearsal.
I made it through the interview in pretty good shape (I’m anxious to hear it tomorrow to see if I can detect any moments when it’s evident that my attention was split in two different directions) and had 6 or 7 minutes more to finish up before it was time to head back to Carthage for the end of Carthage Choir rehearsal – and after that was my one and only chance to put this little dashed off-ditty in front of the guys.
I have to say that this was probably the messiest-looking piece of music I have ever put in front of singers (which is really saying something) and as I handed a copy to each of the guys, I had this sinking feeling that they might truly hate the song just because it was such a pain to try and read. But for whatever reason – either plain old niceness or the fact that they would put up with any irritation for the chance to serenade the president – my singers sang it with great enthusiasm…. and more important than that, they sounded wonderful. (You would have thought that they were some sort of men’s chorus that regularly rehearsed.) I could not have been more pleased or relieved – and hearing them laugh at my lyrics was a special delight.
So that was yesterday afternoon, between 5:20 and 5:40. I promised the guys that they would have much more legible music for the performance itself, and the Great Rewrite was one of my early morning projects. And when I first got to campus, I also thought to grab twelve Carthage folders – 6 black and 6 white – and this is the scary part: I made sure that when the guys stood in a line, the folders alternated black and red. As I was arranging that with the guys right around noon, it was one of those weird out-of-body experiences in which I was floating above myself, looking down and remarking “what sort of strange spirit has taken over the body of Greg Berg?” I don’t know the answer but it struck at just the right time.
So we got to the president’s office about 12:20 (nearly on time) only to learn that he was having a meeting with a student that had gone on unexpectedly long. But it actually felt sort of good to have to sit and cool our heels for awhile; it did something to cool our nerves. And when finally the president emerged from his office and dutifully stepped into the president’s meeting room, where a bogus meeting had been scheduled, that was the cue for the eleven guys and I to march boldly into the room, take our places, and launch into our song:
We greet you, Mister President, in this melodious way.
We wish that it were fancier, but we had just one day…
one day in which to formulate the words which might convey
the admiration and respect we feel for you today.
We thank you, Mister President, with heart & mind & voice.
We know the school could not have made a better, wiser choice.
We wish you every happiness, and we are not alone
in hoping that our humble school will come to feel like home.
And one last thing we have to say before our song’s complete:
Your predecessor’s shoes were big- so also are your feet! ***
And we can say with certainty because we know it’s true
that Carthage College stands secure in part because of you.
And with that, we launched into a spirited rendition of Happy Birthday…. by which time a beautiful birthday cake was being rolled into the room, with candles blazing on top of it. As far as we could tell, President Woodward was completely surprised by it all – and more than a little touched. He mentioned at some point that his wife is actually out of town right now, so I think the fact that his staff thought to do this and planned it was very moving for him.
And by the way, the president seemed to enjoy our performance a lot. In fact, he asked almost immediately who the poet/lyricist was. I’m going to hope that he didn’t ask in order to make sure that whoever was responsible was never allowed to write original lyrics for anything ever again. And he engaged with the guys in some friendly conversation that did not feel the least bit forced or artificial: President Woodward seems to just genuinely love interacting with people, and I’m sure that’s one reason why he’s so very good at it. And the guys responded in kind with warmth and wit. Anyway, we fairly quickly made our exit although a few of us stuck around long enough for a piece of birthday cake, but as we each headed off in our own direction, I think we were all sort of dancing on air. What a special opportunity this had turned out to be- to have this sort of intimate experience with the President. And what a perfect demonstration that our music students are not only remarkable for their talent and their skills. . . but even more for their heart. You could hear it in their voices and you could see it in their smiling faces. And I have never been happier or prouder to be part of Carthage.
pictured above: This murky picture was snapped on my iPhone, but at least it commemorates the day until I get one of the lovely shots taken by staff member Steve Janiak. Left to right: President Woodward, Mike Anderle, Fletcher Paulsen, Chase Tonar, John Kryl, Bob Petts, Joe Pettit, Peter Burch, Christian Aldridge, Max Dinan, and Nick Huff.
By the way, I need to give credit where credit is due. The line in the lyrics about big shoes/big feet was actually inspired by something said back in the spring of 1999 at the farewell banquet for Dr. John Windh, the long time director of the Carthage Choir. I was to take over the choir the following fall for what would turn out to be a two year stint- and through the course of this particular evening, all kinds of glowing things were said about Dr. Windh and what amazing things he had done with the choir. The last of the students to speak was a senior named Neil Scharnick (now a member of the theater faculty) who began his remarks by saying that a lot had said about the huge shoes of Dr. Windh – and rightfully so – but Neil went on to say that he had sung for the previous four years in the chamber singers under my direction, so he was well aware of the fact, and thought it needed to be said, “that Greg Berg has big feet.” I have never ever forgotten that moment- and Neil to this day cannot possibly know what a difference it made for me to hear a student say that at a moment when I was about to undertake such an intimidating challenge. Anyway, if these lyrics ever win me a Grammy for best Presidential Song Serenade, I will not fail to thank Neil for the part he played in how this song came together and for helping inspire the words which generated the biggest laughs of all.