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(Don't miss 2009 COLLABORATION UPDATE below!)

DePauw University's Men of Note alumni closed their 2008 campus reunion concert with two more favorites arranged by Dorn Younger '64 while he was a student at DePauw -- Little Girl Blue and Sermonette. Between songs Tim Grodrian '67, the soloist on Duke of Earl, comments on the group, its leaders and DePauw before 1969, when "women's hours" meant The Men could -- and did -- serenade sororities and women's dorms after hours.

Little Girl Blue is a Rodgers & Hart tune, with Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) as composer and Lorenz "Larry" Hart (1895-1943) as lyricist. First published in 1935, the song's later performers included Janis Joplin and Nina Simone. Little Girl Blue is performed here a cappella, with Frank Jacobs '66 conducting Younger's arrangement.

Sermonette (1960) was penned by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, dubbed "the premier jazz vocal act of all time." Its title derives from short inspirational messages often broadcast by TV stations as they signed off, before television became a 24/7 medium. Younger conducts his arrangement with string bass & drums, followed by a standing ovation.

2009 COLLABORATION UPDATE:
Dorn Younger and Frank Jacobs worked together succesfully as students during the Men of Note's early days, but they were not close friends. That changed during the reunion concert of 2004, after the two men saw each other for the first time in 40 years. A new friendship resulted in performances of new choral music written by Younger for Jacobs and his wife, Arlene Harlow '66, sung by children's choruses in cathedrals across Europe.

More recently Jacobs commissioned Younger to write a 30-35 minute musical tribute for chorus and orchestra to commemorate, in 2009, the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. While composing Younger said he was "trying musically not to take sides" in remembering those who died on both sides during the Civil War. Lyics for the final of five symphonic songs, "Song of Vision," come from the speeches and writings of Lincoln.

The WORLD PREMIERE of "Lincoln: A Symphonic Tribute" was performed October 24, 2009 by the Summit Choral Society in Akron, OH, with over 300 performers on stage. See excerpt here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Qzjhc5cEq1E
or contact http://www.summitchoralsociety.org/

updated 2-19-2010/jt

(Video by Media and User Services Dept., DePauw University)