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News
from Alumni House
The Great Whiffenpoof Reunion of 1999
March
2000
by Dennis "Rhinoce" Cross '65, President of the Yale Whiffenpoof
Alumni
On the
weekend of November 13, 1999, the Whiffenpoofs, the oldest collegiate
a cappella singing group in the country, descended on New Haven
to celebrate 90 years of musical history. Of the approximately 750
living Whiffenpoof alumni, about 350 came together on this occasion
around "the tables down at Mory's "
to join the celebration.
Some
came from extraordinary distances; one member of the Class of 1975
flew in from Moscow; Orrin "Doublejeh" Persky '70 (nearly
all Whiffs have acquired nicknames, usually a pun on their last
name) traveled from Israel. Stewart "Proto" Cole '60 temporarily
left his work in Bosnia so that he could join his classmates in
song. But by far the most dramatic appearance was made by Jon "Dingle"
Ingham '65, who paused in his two-year solo around-the-world sail
to attend.
The alumni
came for a lot of reasons: to see and hear old friends; to meet
and pay tribute to many of the legendary Whiffs of yore; and to experience those wonderful sounds again. For most, the reunion started
on Friday night. Trekking to the Whiffs' ancestral shrine, Mory's,
200 singers packed into that venerable saloon for an evening of
good friends, good food, and good song.
On Saturday
afternoon, members of Whiff groups spanning seven decades attended
a series of "master classes"—rehearsals led by some
of the Whiffenpoofs' most revered and accomplished pitchpipes. In each case, the class offered a master's definitive interpretation
of an arrangement he had made famous. In truth, most Whiffenpoof
pitchpipes have almost no knowledge of how well regarded they may
or may not have become after leaving Yale. Robert "Pitchpipe"
Birge '68 wrote and arranged "Time After Time" while he
was an undergraduate; unknown to him, the song had become a Whiff
classic, sung by every group since he graduated. When Bob showed
up to lead his master class, he was met by over 200 alumni, all eager to meet him and to express their appreciation for the music
he had left to them. While many Whiff groups continue to get to-
gether for years after graduation, it is only at Whiffenpoof reunions
that Whiffs discover what earlier and later generations of groups
were like and what they sang.
The master
classes were followed by a lively cocktail party in the nave of
Sterling Library. Examples of the 64 recordings made by Whiffenpoof
groups over the years were on display, the oldest of which dates
back to 1927. From this point the party—and the music—never
stopped. Over 500 people packed into University Commons for the
traditional reunion banquet. Instead of speeches, however, re-uners
were treated to an extraordinary slide show that ran continuously
while they supped and sang. As part of a project to assemble a visual
archive of the Whiffenpoofs, Richard "Dog" Gould '68 had
collected photos—head shots—of every person who had ever sung
in the Whiffs, 1,250 in all. At dinner these head shots, starting
with the first Whiffenpoofs in 1909, were projected onto a giant
screen. The slide show was in itself a history of the Whiffenpoofs
and of Yale, as re-uners were transported from the starchy WASPs
of the early part of the century, through the chaotic late 1960s
and early 1970s, to the diverse and eclectic Whiffs of the 1990s.
Following
dinner, re-uners assembled in Battell Chapel for a concert, the
high- water mark of the weekend. The first group to sing was a quartet
of Whiffs from the late 1930s called the "Below Par Quartet,"
a reflection of their golfing prowess, not their singing abilities.
A dozen different alumni groups followed, and there were many breathtaking
performances. This observer feels that the best singing was done
by the Whiffs of 2000, which is fitting. But a lot of alumni groups
came close. And maybe that's what holds seven decades of "gentlemen
songsters" together, and why they return for their reunions
in such great numbers. At the end of the concert, as is their custom,
the Whiffs of 2000 invited all former Whiffs in the audience to
come up and join them in the singing of the "Whiffenpoof
Song." Three hundred and fifty did so. What an experience!
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