Hey Band!

[ShardZ]

Both My Old Cornell and New Cornell Fight Song are too long to play as a regular cheer.  And for the most part, the full-song sets that we play are more performance-based, not strictly intended for fan participation.  We try to show off the fact that, unlike most of the other ECAC bands, we have enough songs to play at 4 games in one weekend (last weekends SLU hockey, columbia womens and mens bball, and CCT hockey) and only repeat one single full song.  So, mostly because of their lengths, we only play those two during timeouts or at the end of an intermission (when there is not enough time to play a full song).

As for the words, I would personally post them somewhere if people wanted them, either in a thread on the forum, or on some other website.  Its school spirit, knowing the words to these songs, almost as important as knowing the first 2 verses of the Alma Mater. [little bit of history:  back in the 1890s or so, the dining halls would spontaneously burst out into school songs during meals].

As for the "soccer" chant...the band has 50 people in Lynah at each game,all of them are dedicated fans, and some of them are very stubborn towards the old ways.  Like all fans, some things they like, and some things they don't.  For better or for worse, it is impossible to simply say "get into the chant" and expect the band to automatically be 100% supportive.  Just like (apparently) it is impossible to tell all of sections A and B to simply "get into the chant".

[French Rage]

[quote BMac]
2- Totally unrelated question- why do you guys play the two songs we all sing to (My Old Cornell and the 'New' Fight Song) before the game starts? All this talk of getting people to sing along reminded me that we already have two great songs we do that to. We just don't do it during the game![/quote]

Aren't these played during one of the intermissions?  Or is that no longer the case?

[fink]

[quote ShardZ]As for the words, I would personally post them somewhere if people wanted them, either in a thread on the forum, or on some other website.[/quote]

http://www.elynah.com/?cheers#Alma

Would appear that Mr. Hayes beat you to it.

Trivia time....who knows the verses to myoc and not just the refrain?

[thorn]

They tend to be played if there's time left enough to play but not enough time for a longer song (the fact that they speed up at the end makes them useful) but they're not concrete parts of sets.  Alma has a specific spot, but those two are generally not specifically played.  The pep band has a big enough repertoire that playing those two would take up time from other songs.

[Scersk '97]

[quote fink][quote ShardZ]As for the words, I would personally post them somewhere if people wanted them, either in a thread on the forum, or on some other website.[/quote]

http://www.elynah.com/?cheers#Alma

Would appear that Mr. Hayes beat you to it.

Trivia time....who knows the verses to myoc and not just the refrain?[/quote]

Specifically, me; generally, Glee Clubbers.  All one has to do is head to ol' Lincoln Hall and check out Songs of Cornell, ed. Sokol (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Glee Club, 1988).  That will tell you everything you've ever needed to know.

And so ends a rare moment when a musicologist felt useful.

[mnagowski]

[quote fink]Trivia time....who knows the verses to myoc and not just the refrain?[/quote]

There's verses to it!? Sign me up. Unfortunately my version of Songs From the Hill was published in 1915 before the song was written.

[HeafDog]

[quote ShardZ]As for the "soccer" chant...the band has 50 people in Lynah at each game,all of them are dedicated fans, and some of them are very stubborn towards the old ways.  Like all fans, some things they like, and some things they don't.  For better or for worse, it is impossible to simply say "get into the chant" and expect the band to automatically be 100% supportive.  Just like (apparently) it is impossible to tell all of sections A and B to simply "get into the chant".[/quote]

BMac, if you want to get the soccer chant started, then pretty much what you have to do is, before every game, get together with the people you watch the game with and get tipsy enough so that when you get there, you have no qualms about belting it out and trying to get it started.  Eventually, if you keep it up, game after game, people will start joining in.

[Chris '03]

[quote Josh '99][quote Robb][quote BMac]Hey pep band!
1- Also, the drums can accompany to a very good effect.

2- We just don't do it during the game![/quote]

Since nobody else has mentioned it, I'll point out that the band are not allowed to play their instruments (percussion or otherwise) while the puck is in play.  In fact, I believe that the rule is that nobody is supposed to use "artificial noisemakers" during the play, but there have been some varying definitions of artificial over the years.  Plastic Trumpets?  Thunderstix?   The Clarkson Bell?  Ugh, ugher, and ughest.[/quote]Due to some strict enforcement at Lynah a few years back, I think our band obeys this rule more dutifully than others.  While I certainly would never encourage anyone to flout authority ( ::whistle:: ), it's perhaps been long enough that the band might try to start pushing the envelope a little and see what they can get away with.[/quote]

I don't think our band not playing over the game has much to do with athletics cracking down. They care much much more about language than drums playing while the game is going on. I've always liked that our band is one of the only ones around that consistently respects the rule and that our fans are generally good enough at home and on the road to sustain cheering without percussive help. In fact, being good citizens in that respect is useful for building up the brownie points for winning bigger fights.

[Scersk '97]

[quote Chris '03]I've always liked that our band is one of the only ones around that consistently respects the rule and that our fans are generally good enough at home and on the road to sustain cheering without percussive help.[/quote]

Yes.  To my mind, this discipline has always, for us, been a matter of pride.  Bands that trail over into play are incompetent and incompetently led.

[BMac]

HeafDog, lovely suggestion. Although I've never been drunk for a game (and never will- I'm there for the game), a few shots before either game can (and did!) help us belt it out this weekend.

LaJollaRed suggested that we sing it during play after every Cornell goal, and we followed that this weekend. By the second goal against Yale, we had pretty decent participation. Hopefully more and more people will sing it against Colgate (and hopefully we'll have more chances to do so!)

In any case, thank to imafrshmn for actually printing the words out and distributing to A against Yale, and thanks to everyone (particularly band members) who responded to this thread. I had no idea there were more words to My Old Cornell... maybe the mysterious folks who print out the alma mater lyrics to senior night games (is it the band?) could combine with the band to have the faithful sing the full song sometime. That would be awesome.

[lhayes]

After reading this thread, I found myself singing a Lynah pep band tune I first heard decades ago when I was 13, and pondering its strangeness.  The lyrics:  "Who eats the moose?  [repeat several times] Oh, HARVARD eats the moose!  H-A-R-V-A-R-D!"  The trumpets did a wonderful moose-trumpeting sound on the HARVARD part (which of course varied with the opponent).

I don't think I've heard this at Lynah in years.  (Small wonder, actually, when one considers the words.)   I was thinking I must have made this up, but then located this site confirming my memory:  http://www.trumpets.org/themoose.html

Does anyone know why this tune isn't played at hockey games anymore?  I recall it got enthusiastic fan support.  I adored it (at least when I was 13).

[thorn]

Are you sure that wasn't a football game?  That song's generally played by the marching band...  It's also the Columbia fight song.  There are alternate lyrics as well that tend to involve 'sucks.'  The pep band has done it on occasion, but it's more commonly heard when played by the marching band trumpet section.

Also, that's perhaps the first time trumpets.org has been cited.  Anywhere.

[RichH]

[quote lhayes]After reading this thread, I found myself singing a Lynah pep band tune I first heard decades ago when I was 13, and pondering its strangeness.  The lyrics:  "Who eats the moose?  [repeat several times] Oh, HARVARD eats the moose!  H-A-R-V-A-R-D!"  The trumpets did a wonderful moose-trumpeting sound on the HARVARD part (which of course varied with the opponent).

I don't think I've heard this at Lynah in years.  (Small wonder, actually, when one considers the words.)   I was thinking I must have made this up, but then located this site confirming my memory:  http://www.trumpets.org/themoose.html

Does anyone know why this tune isn't played at hockey games anymore?  I recall it got enthusiastic fan support.  I adored it (at least when I was 13).[/quote]

Well, for a quick inside joke: it's who *IS* the moose!!

Band alumnus here, so I'll try to explain.  It's complicated, but the general answer is that it's never an officially planned cheer.  More of an entity in the marching band (the pep band is a separate organization), it's generally used by the trumpets (and on a rare occasion, the tubas) to hijack a song during rehearsals or post-game concerts.  For example, the conductor or drum major will call any song, and begin it, and when the trumpets are usually supposed to come in, instead, they'll all play "the moose" instead, forcing a stoppage by everyone else.  Often it occurs when there's an alumni conductor making a guest appearance, and their name is spelled out in the song.

The tune is actually one of the fight songs of Columbia U., "Who owns New York?"  So that's one reason it's rarely heard in public...it's actually another Ivy's song. Also, since the cheer is designed with the element of surprise in mind, that is to never be known when it is coming, it's never played in an organized fashion at events.  Often met with groans from the rest of the band, because it just delays playing the song that they are supposed to be playing, and letting them get done with rehearsal.  As such, it can be seen as being unprofessional when interrupting playing of others, so it usually isn't done outside of rehearsals or football post-game concerts when there's nobody but bandies and band alumni around.

[Beeeej]

[quote BMac]maybe the mysterious folks who print out the alma mater lyrics to senior night games (is it the band?)[/quote]

No.

[HeafDog]

[quote BMac]maybe the mysterious folks who print out the alma mater lyrics to senior night games (is it the band?)[/quote]

That would be The Cornell Anaphoric Society.

There's a little reference to it in this Uncle Ezra posting.