In the 1906 autumn semester Ladies' College vocal culture teacher Kate Hemming compiled Mount Allison's first songbook [1], Mount Allison Songs. Published in 1908, it gathered songs composed by Mount Allison students in addition to popular selections that were favoured across campus. Mount Allison's "Alma Mater Song," written by Winthrop Pickard Bell, Class of 1904, was included in this edition.
The publication of Mount Allison Songs was long overdue. The University of New Brunswick had published its first songbook in 1881 and Nova Scotia colleges Acadia and Dalhousie had published their first songbooks in 1903 and 1904 respectively. [2]
Students sang at pep rallies, on the special trains, during parades and while attending games. Clementina Pickard, Class of 1915, remarked in a 1976 interview that Mount Allison students sang a lot during her time as a student, and that there were "so many college songs and we sang at football games." [3]
Published for the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison College.
May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Mount Allison University Archives, Gladys E. Duffy fonds, accession 7945. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
Since at least 1892 Mount Allison students had been yelling out cheers in support of their home team. The first recorded college yell appeared in The Argosy (October 1892):
"Up-up-up,
On-on-on
Mot-to-of Al-li-son!"
By 1904 students at the Ladies' College began to lament that they did not have a distinctive yell. An article in the Ladies' College student journal, Allisonia (January 1904), explained:
"As yet the Ladies' College girls have no songs or cries as distinguished from the regular Mount Allison yell. It is true the basket-ball girls give an occasional cheer at their contests, but this is of a promiscuous nature, not a definite or adopted one. To the uninitiated the jargon does not suggest either rhyme or reason, but when glibly rattled off by a crowd of true enthusiasts the magic of its power to rouse class and college feeling to fever heat is revealed." [4]
The following account in The Allisonia (November 1911) of the 1911 championship rugby football match between Acadia and Mount Allison also provides a glimpse into the important role songs and cheers played in raising crowd and team spirit:
"The great masses, however, are college students, eager, excited, jubilant rooters, sending back and forth over the campus, their songs of anticipated victory, making the cool air ring with the yells intended to inspire the men of the grid-iron." [5]
Mount Allison University Archives, Mrs. Bob E. Lockhart fonds, accession 7528. May be reproduced only with permission of Mount Allison University Archives.
On 15 January 2008 the Mount Allison Choral Society under the direction of Mount Allison Assistant Professor of Music Gayle h. Martin gathered to perform songs and cheers that were first sung over one hundred years ago. Enthusiasm ran high as the singers rang off two songs and three cheers for Old Mount A!
To listen to the MP3 selections (below) in your favourite computer audio player, PC users may right-click each title and select "Save As," while Mac users can control-click and save.
Please take a moment to listen to the following songs:
and cheers:
Picture taken inside Brunton Auditorium, Marjorie Young Bell Conservatory of Music (site of the recording of five Mount Allison songs and cheers)
Photograph courtesy Kip Jackson.
Words by Winthrop Pickard Bell (class of 1904); music by Gus Edwards; chorus harmonized from "In Zanzibar" by special permission of Jerome H. Remick & Co., New York.
Reproduced from Mount Allison Songs, published for the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison, 1908, pp. 20-22.
Words by Winthrop Pickard Bell (class of 1904); music by Gus Edwards; chorus harmonized from "In Zanzibar" by special permission of Jerome H. Remick & Co., New York.
Reproduced from Mount Allison Songs, published for the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison, 1908, pp. 20-22.
Words by Winthrop Pickard Bell (class of 1904); music by Gus Edwards; chorus harmonized from "In Zanzibar" by special permission of Jerome H. Remick & Co., New York.
Reproduced from Mount Allison Songs, published for the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison, 1908, pp. 20-22.
[1] Allisonia, vol. IV, no. 2, Jan. 1907, "Our College Songs," p. 40
[2] Library catalogue search of the individual universities; Allisonia, vol. IV, no. 2, Jan. 1907, "Our College Songs," p. 40 says that Mount Allison can now join Dalhousie and Acadia, and other colleges in Dominion, of having its own songbook
[3] Mount Allison University Archives, accession 8207, transcript, interview with Celementina Godfrey, by Pamela Swainson, 3 December 1976
[4] Allisonia, vol I, no. 2, Jan. 1904, "College Sports,", p. 55
[5] Allisonia, vol. X1, no. 1, Nov. 1911, "An Outside View," [by O.W.?], pp. 4-6