Woodworth Resigns HGC Conductorship to Forbes

Woody has resigned as conductor of the Harvard Glee Club.

In a meeting yesterday, the 100-year-old Glee Club heard G. Wallace Woodworth '24, James Edward Ditson Professor of Music, announce his resignation, because, he said, "a quarter of a century is enough." He joined the HGC as assistant accompanist in 1921, and was named assistant conductor in 1925, as well as conductor of the Radcliffe Choral Society. In 1933, upon the resignation of Archibald "Doc" Davison, he was named conductor of the HGC. In the summer of 1956, Woodworth led the Club on a triumphant concert tour of Europe, its first visit there since 1921.

To succeed him, the Club elected Elliot Forbes, former conductor of the Princeton University Glee Club, as director of the HGC and the Radcliffe Choral Society. The University will appoint another musician as University organist and choirmaster, who may become associated with the Divinity School.

Will Return in 1959

Woodworth will take a sabbatical leave from the University next year, and will return in January, 1959, to take up his appointment as Lowell Television Lecturer on WGBH-TV. The conductor, who has presided enthusiastically over Music 1,--which will still be given next year--will again teach that course in 1959-60, as well as three half-courses for music non-concentrators. "I look forward to participating in the expansion of the music program," he said yesterday.

Several hours after his announcement to the Glee Club, Woodworth gathered the two musical groups on the steps of Widener to sing the first Yard concert of the year, a series of choruses from the Bach B-Minor Mass. An estimated crowd of 1,000 stood shivering in the cold wind, until, at the start of the "Resurrexit," the sun broke through the clouds.

"A golden age is dawning for the Glee Club," he said at the concert's close.