‘May honor crown thy heritage’: The ‘Harpur Alma Mater’ plays on
The Harpur College alma mater has gained new life 70 years after it was written. Once consigned to the pages of Binghamton University history books, the song is now showcased at the Harpur College Commencement ceremonies each spring.
Universities, colleges and high schools typically have an alma mater, either an original composition or a familiar tune that’s easy to sing along with, notes Daniel Fabricius, a music faculty member and conductor of the University Wind Symphony.
The “Harpur Alma Mater” was written in 1950 by J. Alex Gilfillan, a founding faculty member, head and initially the sole member of the Music Department. His song urges the community of the young liberal arts school to “hail thee Harpur alma mater” as “the hills re-echo thy name.” The same heights would later serve as the foundation of Binghamton University’s official alma mater: “In the Rolling Hills of Binghamton” (written by David Engel ’86).
After Fabricius became University Wind Symphony conductor in 2012, he was told that Commencement ceremonies would soon be split by schools and that Harpur College would incorporate its own alma mater.
“The good news was that I was able to find the music — what we would call a piano/vocal version of it,” he recalls. “I don’t think there was a band arrangement at that time. If there was, I knew I had to rewrite some things. That’s how the current arrangement came into being.”
A key to the updated “Harpur Alma Mater” arrangement, Fabricius says, was finding the best way to highlight the student musicians. Essentially, the band provides the accompaniment and otherwise stays out of the way. Trumpet fanfare and other creative elements can be incorporated when the words present an opening.
In 2018 and 2019, Fabricius turned to Kelsey Watts ’20 to deliver the song’s vocals. Watts, who is now pursuing her Master of Music in Opera at Binghamton University, has also sung the “Harpur Alma Mater” during the college’s 70thanniversary kickoff celebration at the 2019 Homecoming.
“It’s funny being one of the only people who sings this song or even knows that it exists,” she says. “A lot of my friends who graduate tell me that they didn’t even know we have an alma mater, and especially not two of them! Performing it at the Commencement ceremonies makes the song more exciting because I get to sing with (the Wind Symphony) and for a massive audience. I’ve done it many times, but it’s still nerve-racking.”
For Fabricius, the fact that the alma mater is still part of Harpur College is a credit to Gilfillan, who retired from the University in 1969 and died at his Florida home in 1987 at the age of 82.
“There are some schools where the musical end of (the alma mater) is less than you would want. But that’s not the case for Harpur,” he says. “It has served us well for 70 years and I’m sure it’s going to go on a lot longer.”