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Music from the Mountains
New York State Music Camp 1947 - 1996
by Robert F. Swift



Dedication

To all the students of music, past and present, who together each summer have shared and continue to share their unique talents;

and to the memory of my dad for his vision and dedication in establishing the program which has touched the lives of so many of us.

Dr. Frederick Fay Swift
1907 -- September 25, 1989


Preface

This is a love story.

An intimate relationship for half a century is bound to lead to strong feelings, one way or the other. For fifty consecutive summers the New York State Music Camp has been a part of the author's life. At age seven he attended concerts during the first season, sitting in the audience with his mother and younger brother. At nine he first sang in the Concert Choir. By his thirteenth year he was a full-fledged camper, playing clarinet in the band, singing tenor in the choirs, and living on campus in one of the cabins near the lake.

He advanced to junior counselorship when he was seventeen and became a senior counselor one year later. He first taught a camp class at 22, the year of graduation from Hartwick College. The next summer he conducted the choirs in concerts for the first time. The privilege of teaching and conducting extends to the present day.

Summers at music camp have become a way of life for him, a continuing thread, a constant through many changes. They have resulted in lifelong friendships (including that with his wife), never to be forgotten musical experiences, and memoirs which encompass the whole gamut of human emotions.


Dr. Robert F. Swift
Echoes -- the author in June 1996
at the Music Camp Site at Otter Lake


I am deeply honored and profoundly grateful to have been given the opportunity to write this history. The magnitude of the project was considerable -- so much material, so many sources, plus all the memories. The continuing challenge has been the decisions: what could be left out as much as what should have been included. And I discovered that there is much for which written records have been lost.

The eight chapters were written in consecutive, chronological order. Each provided its own difficulties.

  • Tracking down information on the Ernest Williams Music Camp for Chapter One led to the discovery of the enjoyment and adventure of historical research.
  • Chapter Two required a revisiting of times spent in one of my favorite places on earth, the Adirondack Mountains, but those times included sad memories.
  • Chapter Three covers the years when I was most actively involved in the program.The challenge was in not presenting just my personal view.
  • Chapters Four and Five include much information gleaned secondhand, either from others' reminiscences of from Hi Notes of the time.
  • Chapters Six and Seven may old the greatest interest for the reader. They present memories shared by faculty, staff, and alumni from earlier years. Preparing the more than one hundred beautiful submissions necessitated some editing because of space constraints.
  • Finally in Chapter Eight (the shortest of all), the intent was to look into the future -- if indeed that can be done. The Roman god Janus demonstrated how it might be accomplished.

The narrative is largely in the third person, as befits historical writing. In certain instances I have included obvious, personal observations and commentary. Those particular passages are placed in rectangular boxes, such as this:

The reader is now forewarned

So many individuals contributed to this project. Were I to list each, the pages would run on and on. To each of the respondents in Chapters Six and Seven, for instance, I am deeply indebted. However, I should like to acknowledge fifteen individuals and one institution for whose assistance I am particularly grateful. They are named alphabetically, save one:

Sincere appreciation is extended:

To Gary Corcoran, Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Plymouth State College, for offering patient instruction, encouragement, and assistance in developing word-processing skills.

To Mary P. Crowly of True Colors Print and Design, Plymouth, New Hampshire, for advice and services in layout and design of the book you are reading.

To Jan A. Maas of Brooklyn, New York, a lifelong friend (first met at the 1956 music camp) for proof-reading, and for encouragement.

To Craig McHenry, former Dean of Music at Ithaca College, for invaluable assistance in researching the Ernest Williams Music Camp.
To Willard I. Musser of Greentown, Pennsylvania, for providing names, addresses, memories, and invaluable leads from Otter Lake years. To John G. Norton, Otter Lake, New York, without whose assistance much information on the history of Otter Lake (as well as the 1996 return concert and historical marker dedication) would never have been realized.
To Plymouth State College (Dr. Donald Wharton, President) for providing my first sabbatical leave in Spring 1995 to devote to the research for this project.

To Deborah Fae Swift, Rochester, New York, my younger sister, for providing the wealth of information from the third and fourth decades of the Camp history.

To my children, Jeffrey and Jennifer, for their support and faith that their dad was equal to the task, and to Jennifer as a journalism major for suggestions on how to write interesting history.

To Nancy Swift Cook, my older sister, for memories shared, encouragement given, and friendship through the years.
To Norma W. Swift, Oneonta, New York, who accepted the invitation to become my dad's second wife and the mother of his three children, for providing insights and information unavailable elsewhere. To Shelley Wallace, Archivist of Hartwick College, for generously providing assistance in my research on campus, and for sharing materials from the Archives.

To Stuart Wallace, New Hampshire State historian, for recommendations on historical writing.

To Steven T. Zvengrowski, Hartwick College Music Department Chair and Director of the Summer Music Festival and Institute, for encouragement in this project, and for ongoing administrative leadership in the summer program.

And finally to Margot W. Swift, my wife, for patience and suggestions and memories -- for lending a hand, a shoulder, and an occasional kick where needed.

I close with a poem discovered in This England magazine. The tone is sentimental, but the sentiment rings true.

Memory Lane

Memory lane is the sweetest place--
It's where the years roll back,
And you meet again the old-time friends
Of whom you've long lost track.

And you live again the happy times
When you and Dad were there
To give to you the boundless love
That made your world so fair.

Of all the roads both near and far
where I have ever been
Memory lane's the sweetest one
To see, to see again.

-- Rachel Hartnett

(Reproduced by permission from This England magazine)

Plymouth, New Hampshire
June 1, 1996




 

   
 

 


 

 
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