From Minneapolis to Morris: sing, sing, sing!

Ralph E. Williams in 1962 here in Morris

"When he put on a full dress suit, he was the best looking guy you ever saw." 
- Edward Crepeau, writing about the late Ralph E. Williams, founder of UMM music, when Ralph directed the Apollo Male Chorus, Minneapolis
 
Well, how am I doing with my brown corduroys?
I have been blogging about family lately, more than usual, because of the void caused by the pandemic shutdown. No high school sports as a background in our lives. The lights were turned on at our softball/baseball fields in Motown Monday night, as a gesture of "keeping the faith" with our prep sports. This too shall pass, or something like that. It was a nice gesture even if puzzling for some observers.
It was logical for my late father to be inclined toward forming a male-only chorus when he came to our Motown in 1960. The UMM men's chorus became quite ballyhooed. Consider Dad's background with the heralded Minneapolis-based men's ensemble in the 1950s. I have no memory of my father directing the Minneapolis Apollo Male Chorus. That's because this stint ended in 1955, the year I was born.
Dad already had a full and exciting music resume by the time yours truly came into the world. Hope my birth was not a complication for him, but it may have been. He continued teaching music at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul School of Agriculture. I do have some foggy but pleasant memories of that. I was preschool. I was watching the Loretta Young TV show at our rented place in St. Paul.
A genealogy website informs me I was born in Ramsey MN on the east end of the Twin Cities. We shopped at the Applebaum's Grocery Store. There was a sledding hill close to where we lived. UMM had not yet been born. Our campus here was humming along in its final days of its own ag school chapter.
The West Central School of Agriculture is a cornerstone of Morris history, most revered. UMM and the WCSA functioned side by side for a time. Dad directed a mass unit that included students of both. Del Sarlette recently had framed a large photo of that significant group from the 1961-62 year.
 
A headliner for UMM
But most of all, Dad's men's chorus got attention in UMM's heady early chapters. The days of that were probably numbered. Unless there was an equal opportunity for women in terms of the overall experience and attention gained, it was not going to fly indefinitely. I'm not sure Dad was adequately aware of that. He grew up in different times when maybe society set aside advantages for the male gender - do you suppose?
Dad directed the UMM pep band at the old P.E. Annex in a time when there were no college women's sports teams. None! Lordy. People his age had notions ingrained about gender roles, to an extent. Society had to be coached out of all that. And like all major societal change, it can advance like a glacier. I know Dad was enlightened on race and peace issues.
 
"Fight, fight, fight for Morris U"
Perhaps I had a permanent defensiveness ingrained in my nature due to Dad's UMM fight song being retired. One can hash over these things - I have suggested the song might have one lyrical deficiency which I have suggested could be remedied - but to hear an instrumental version is 100 percent satisfying, I assure you. I don't think there was an introduction, either for the fight song or the Hymn which Dad also wrote. This can be remedied for any tune by just playing the last few bars.
No intro? All creators of music have their particular traits, like Neil Diamond starting out his songs with the title of the song. One of mine is to use "ya" instead of "you" in order to get a rhyme! My father had a great many compositions commercially published. I have had none, so the comparison ends there. But I have the right to embrace the pastime and to dream a little.
Dad's sacred music continues to be performed at churches across the USA. Dad's time at UMM was when society was going through some tumult, where I feel academic and Christian messages had to be separated. I'm not one for "pushing" Christian messages. I made peace with the Christian faith after Dad passed away. It's getting harder again - quite hard - as so much of the faith has become intertwined with Donald Trump. It defies understanding IMHO.
But I attend church where my parents went, First Lutheran, and try to hang in there. Don't worry: First Lutheran of the ELCA will never bow down and pay homage to Trump. Let the Apostolics and others do that, too many others. I pray for an awakening, a renaissance.
How humble my life is, compared to my father's. Here's a paragraph from a retrospective publication re. the Minneapolis Apollo Club:
 
In 1951 Williams because the seventh director of the Apollo Club. Melvin Burlingame, former historian of the Club wrote in 1964: "His term of directorship was highlighted by his interpretation of the Club's music, his brilliant showmanship, stage presentation and personality. With the introduction of his own compositions and arrangements into the programs of the Apollo Club, the Club produced a new sound that was excitingly different from the usual choral fare."
 
All very good, but consider my brown corduroys too.
  
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com 

Ralph rehearses the UMM orchestra, 1970s