Singing is an inextricable part of the Kenyon experience, with new voices added to the chorus each year.
Now, for the first time in more than six decades, an updated version of the College’s official songbook is providing a fresh look at the traditional songs that have defined generations of students.
Edited by Professor of Music Benjamin “Doc” Locke in honor of the College’s bicentennial, the fifth edition of “Songs of Kenyon” contains the standard melodies as well as previously unpublished arrangements for classic songs like “Kokosing Farewell,” “Philander Chase,” “The Thrill (Alma Mater),” and “Stand Up and Cheer.”
The 56-page book is available for $10 from the Kenyon College Bookstore. It was funded by a Bicentennial Special Projects Grant.
“It was a labor of love,” said Locke, who joined the College in 1984 and directs the Chamber Singers, the Kenyon Community Choir and the Knox County Symphony. “It is both archival and, hopefully, practical. Just to look at the history of these songs and write about them, it was a lot of fun.”
Earlier editions of the songbook were published in 1859, 1866, 1906 and 1957 — all before women were admitted to the College in 1969. For the first time, the original all-male arrangements for many of the songs are supplemented with choral arrangements for mixed-choir settings, all created by Locke over the years. There are a few arrangements for strings and keyboard as well.
“This is 40 years of work that simply became part of the musical dialogue of the College,” he said.
One modern selection is “The Height of This Hill,” commissioned to celebrate the conclusion of the “We Are Kenyon” capital campaign in 2011. Composed by Locke and based on a poem by Marta Evans ’06, it has only been performed publicly once. That will change Saturday when it closes out the Chamber Singers and Community Choir Winter Concert at 8 p.m. in Rosse Hall.
The songbook also includes an adaptation of the campy “I Want a Kenyon Man” by Maxwell Budd Long, Class of 1905, which Locke infused with feminist perspective when he asked the female a cappella group Colla Voce to perform it for a recording in 2011.
Rounding out the seven songs in the book is the hymn “I Would Not Live Alway,” with music by George Kingsley, Class of 1833. A favorite of the College’s sixth president, Lorin Andrews, it was adapted and revived by Locke in 1998 when the former president’s remains were moved to allow for the construction of Storer Hall, home to the music department.
Kenyon has a special relationship with song, making this project — originally conceived around the music department’s 75th anniversary in 2022 in collaboration with Alumni Council — a noteworthy one.
“Where else do you find a school where people can gather from as many as four or five decades and sing the same songs with gusto?” Locke asked. “That has become one thread that ties all of Kenyon students together.”
Students are introduced to traditional Kenyon songs as soon as they arrive on campus in an event that is reprised four years later on the steps of Rosse Hall at Senior Sing. Alumni gather to belt out the same tunes at reunions as well.
"All-Reunion Sing is always a highlight of that weekend, even if it’s way past everyone’s bedtime, nobody wants to miss it. I’m sure alumni will love pouring over the history of songs they’ve known for years," said Annie Gordon, director of alumni and parent engagement.
“Songs of Kenyon” includes a forward and essay by Locke — who has led singalongs at the College for decades — as well as notes on many of the songs providing historical background and amusing anecdotes.
These include the story of how a 2006 dedication ceremony for what is now called the Lowry Center was memorably interrupted by streakers as the Chamber Singers debuted Locke’s arrangement of “Stand Up and Cheer.” The fight song with words written by E.W. Peake, Class of 1911, takes inspiration from a football victory over Ohio State, which last happened in the late 1800s.
Locke said that updating the songbook for modern times inevitably meant excluding a number of songs. Some were removed based on their connection to minstrel songs; others were fraternity songs that no longer reflected a campus-wide audience — and in some cases didn’t even include the music to accompany the lyrics.
All of the work put into updating the songbook was in service to a simple goal, according to Locke — facilitating the lifelong connection between students that singing together has provided for 200 years.
“Kenyon is a place where people sing and they have fun singing,” Locke said. “All these people, they learn these songs, and then, suddenly for a lifetime, they’re connected.”