Hitting a High Note
A Musical Tradition Begins at Dickinson and Beyond
By Timothy Potts ’71

In May, a small band of Dickinson musicians sang where St. Francis sang with the birds, where drums celebrate the baptism of a year’s worth of children, where the Medicis’ legacy of lights arises at sunset, where trumpets and alarums heralded Roman legions, and where, today, Carabinieri with automatic weapons silently guard American students in their quest for knowledge worth knowing.

It was the first time in its 230-year history that Dickinson dispatched musical emissaries to engage one of Western civilization’s most revered cultural benefactors—Italy. But it won’t be the last.

The group gears up for its concert at Palazzo Vai Prato in Florence.

Dickinson’s Collegium Musicum departed Carlisle on a drizzly May 21, prepared by two campus concerts during the year and three days of intensive rehearsal immediately before departure. The tour itself encompassed five concerts in four cities over 11 days.

The program, crafted by Collegium Director and Music Department Chair Blake Wilson, merged the high art of Italian polyphony (Palestrina’s Missa Brevis and Verdelot madrigals) with the high drama of American early shape-note music, folk songs and Morten Lauridsen’s contemporary treatment of O Magnum Mysterium.

“Even though Italy produced wonderful choral composers, there is little in the way of a choral tradition today,” Wilson told his singers as they prepared for the tour. “Opera has eclipsed choral works for most Italians, so it’s hard to know what kind of reception we will have.”

If the tour itself was unique, so were the performers, combining generations and associations with Dickinson that rarely occur in college ensembles. Among the 22 singers were 11 current students, eight alumni (from ’71 to ’03), three current staff, two professors and one member of the college community. (If you totaled 25, it’s because all of the staff also are alumni.)

The music, too, had a Dickinson connection, including four traditional American songs arranged by Truman Bullard, professor emeritus of music. They were pieces that Italian audiences simply loved to hear, and the Collegium loved to sing.

Concerts in Assisi and Bologna bookended the tour, literally and musically. Between those concerts, the Collegium performed once in Siena on a joint program with the Siena Cathedral choir and twice in Florence. Each was a challenging musical experience because of varying acoustics and varying expectations for the performers.

Singer and Associate Professor of Philosophy Cyril Dwiggins poses with the Dickinson group’s promotional poster in Assisi.

By consensus, the most memorable venue was the Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi. Here, St. Francis was baptized, and the Collegium held its first performance.

“Our first concert was exciting and quite scary,” said Katie Chick ’04. “It’s easy to sing in front of your friends and family who are going to be appreciative even if they don’t like the music. But we really had to prove ourselves to our audiences in Italy, and this made everyone work that much harder.”

As the performance proceeded in the small church a few blocks from the center of Assisi, the audience grew. Passers-by looked in and chose to join what became a standing-room-only audience. Earlier, at sunny noon in front of the Roman Temple of Minerva, Wilson led the Collegium in a preview concert of two pieces while tour leaders passed out fliers. Traffic stopped to listen, and perhaps some of those who enjoyed the appetizer came for the musical feast that night.

At the end of the performance, the priest came forward. Unscripted, he said that we had brought honor to the church and to all those present, and he blessed us for the remainder of our tour.

Close behind Assisi as “most memorable” was an experience apart from a scheduled performance.

Coro Stellutis is an Italian choir of about 40 voices that has performed four times at Dickinson. Its director, Giorgio Vacchi, is a musicologist who has spent his life collecting the folk songs of the Bologna region and arranging them for the choir.

Upon hearing that the Collegium was coming to Bologna, Vacchi invited Collegium to join Coro Stellutis for a traditional Bolognese dinner and an evening of song. We arrived at their rehearsal hall, a renovated blacksmith’s shop in the midst of cornfields, with music in hand but unprepared for the exchange that would occur.

“They sang songs that were so powerful and different from the songs we sing. There was so much feeling in their music that it made me and several others cry,” said Heather Nice ’04.

“Then we sang for them, and when we sang O Magnum Mysterium, I looked up at the end and several of them were crying. I thought it was amazing that even though many of us couldn’t really communicate with words, we communicated through music and were able to evoke such powerful emotions in each other.”

Collegium Musicum singers take on Tuscany. Above, they rehearse for their performance in Settignano, near Florence.

With these and other experiences behind it, the Collegium has just begun its new musical journey.

“The concerts—the singers—exceeded my most optimistic expectations,” Wilson said.

“This experience has added such new depth to the musical program at Dickinson that, with the college administration’s blessing, we are already planning to make such tours—both in the United States and abroad—a continuing part of the opportunities Dickinson provides for its students.” •

Timothy Potts ’71 has been singing first tenor for the Collegium (with a few sabbaticals) since his arrival on campus in 1967.

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