This weekend's Commencement celebration featured Chamber Singer and Glee Club performances of a wide variety of music, ranging from well-loved, traditional Dartmouth melodies to African Freedom songs.
In concerts on Friday and Saturday, the Chamber Singers and the Glee Club each performed a series of melodies.
Most of the Chamber Singers' selections were from their Spring Concert, "Voices of Freedom," the group's President Dan Shaw '98 said.
The songs from the Spring Concert included South African Freedom Songs and African American Spirituals, Director of the Chamber Singers Charles Houmard said.
Houmard said the group also sang an Italian Madrigal, a work of high-poetry, often one about passionate love, set to music.
The piece the Chamber singers performed featured lyrics from an Italian Renaissance poem and music composed by Matt Kramar '00, a member of the group.
The group made a special effort to include favorites of its seniors, Molly Heath '98, Joseph Curtis '98 and Shaw, in their final performances.
Two guests performed with the Chamber singers this weekend, Mezzo-soprano Erma Gattie sang a solo, and the director and a member of the World Music Percussion Ensemble accompanied the group.
Houmard called the Chamber Singers' selections "uplifting."
"We want to send graduates off in a high spirited frame of mind," he said.
Shaw, who guest conducted one of the pieces, said the Chamber Singers' selections were "fun music."
"It should be fun for [the audience] to listen to," he said. "It's not overly pensive. It's not supposed to make them ponder the meaning of life."
During the concerts, the Glee Club performed a mix of pieces by 20th century American composers and traditional Dartmouth melodies, Glee Club president Stacey Morris '99 said.
Morris said one highlight of the performance was the Barber Adagio, an adaptation of an adagio for strings.
She said the selection was "made to sound like a symphony of voices" and was "slow [and] very pretty."
Glee Club alumni were invited to sing with the group during its performances, she said.
This morning's Commencement will include Glee Club performances of several well-loved Dartmouth songs.
The ceremony will begin with a performance of the Commencement Hymn and will include renditions of Dartmouth Undying and the Alma Mater, Morris said.
The songs are usually sung by a combination of Glee Club and Chamber Singers members, but this year, the Glee Club will sing the songs alone. she said.
