Fenno Heath

Fenno Follansbee Heath, Jr. (December 30, 1926 – December 5, 2008) was an American conductor, composer, and arranger of choral music.

Heath attended Yale University, where he majored in music and graduated in 1950. As an undergraduate he sang in the Yale Freshman Chorus, the Apollo Glee Club, the Yale Glee Club, and the Spizzwinks, the country's second-oldest a cappella singing group. In his senior year he was appointed conductor of the Whiffenpoofs, the prestigious all-senior a cappella group.

Heath's graduate studies were at the Yale School of Music. During this time he was conductor of the Apollo Glee Club. He received the M.M. degree in 1952.

Professional positions
From 1953 to 1992, he was the conductor of the Yale Glee Club. This chorus consisted of male undergraduate students in their second, third, and fourth years, and sang classical music as well as spirituals and folk songs.

The chorus was composed of men only (as Yale's undergraduate college was all-male). In 1969, Yale admitted its first women undergraduates. That same year Heath helped to organize the auditions for the first all-female a cappella group at Yale, "The New Blue." The following year, Heath changed the Glee Club from an all-male chorus to a mixed chorus.

During his term as director of the Yale Glee Club, Heath also held the post of "Marshall Bartholomew Professor of Choral Conducting" at the Yale School of Music.

Heath retired in 1992 and the directorship of the Glee Club passed to David H. Connell, another graduate of the Yale School of Music (D.M.A. 1991).

After his retirement from Yale, Heath continued to conduct at choral festivals and alumni get-togethers, and to compose choral music.

Accomplishments and honors

 * Heath arranged a large number of songs for chorus. While his group was all male, he was dedicated to arrangements for four-part male chorus, known as "TTBB chorus." After 1970, when he added women to his group, his arrangements were mostly for mixed chorus, known as "SATB chorus." His choral arrangements are published by Schirmer, many of them as part of the "Yale Glee Club Series" that was started by his predecessor as Glee Club director, Marshall Bartholomew.


 * He also arranged music for male and female a cappella singing groups.


 * Heath was active as a composer, creating many works for chorus. Most of his works are based on Christian religious texts or subjects. He wrote for chorus alone, chorus with piano, and chorus with instruments.


 * As Glee Club director, Heath led the group on many tours, both domestic and international. Highlights included a round-the-world tour in 1965 and tours to South America, Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia.


 * After his retirement, Heath was named "conductor emeritus" of the Glee Club.
 * He was awarded the Yale Glee Club Medal for his contributions to the Glee Club.
 * He was awarded the Yale Medal for his contributions to the university.
 * He was appointed director of the University Glee Club of New Haven in 1955. A position he held until 1986, handing the baton to Mark Dollhopf '77.
 * He was named an honorary member of the University Glee Club of New York City.
 * He was awarded the Marshall Bartholomew Award by the Intercollegiate Men's Choruses, a national association of male choruses
 * In 2005, Jeffrey Douma, conductor of the Yale Glee Club, created the Fenno Heath Award, a composition competition for new Yale songs (to rekindle the tradition of prolific composition of Yale-spirited songs around the turn of the 20th century). The competition was named for Heath in honor of his work with YGC, which looked both forwards with innovation and backwards to tradition, a hallmark of the group today.

Compositions

 * Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight (words by Vachel Lindsay)
 * Beat, Beat Drums! (words by Walt Whitman)
 * Fern Hill (words by Dylan Thomas)
 * Death Be Not Proud (setting of Holy Sonnet X by John Donne)
 * General William Booth Enters into Heaven (words by Vachel Lindsay)
 * The Greatest of These (written for Church of the Redeemer in New Haven, Connecticut)
 * The Lamb (words by William Blake; written for Yale Glee Club)
 * Lux et Veritas (1998?)
 * Mass for Chorus and Brass (1987?)
 * Psalm 96
 * Reunion (written for the 145th Glee Club Reunion in 2006, words by Sandra Boynton)
 * Stop, Look, and Listen - Here Come the Smithereens (1948)
 * Thy Word is a Lantern (1965)
 * Tiger, Tiger

Arrangements/Transcriptions

 * Alleluia, from Brazilian Psalm by Jean Berger
 * Ave Maria (Franz Biebl)
 * The Battle Of Jericho
 * Cheek to Cheek
 * Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?
 * Er Is Een Kindeke Geboren Op D'Aard
 * Ev'ry Time I Feel The Spirit
 * Gaudeamus igitur
 * Guide my Head
 * He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
 * In That Great Gettin' Up Mornin'
 * I Wonder as I Wander
 * Keep In The Middle Of The Road
 * My Lord, What A Mornin'
 * A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
 * Poem In October (by Dylan Thomas)
 * Rise Up, Shepherd
 * See Him In A Manger
 * September Song
 * Shenandoah (arr. Marshall Bartholomew, transcribed for SATB chorus by Fenno Heath)
 * Simple Gifts
 * Softly
 * Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
 * The Lady Is A Tramp
 * They Can't Take That Away From Me
 * This Train
 * Three Chanteys (1. Eight Bells 2. Away to Rio! 3. Old Man Noah)


 * Wake, Freshmen, Wake
 * What Child Is This
 * When Johnny Comes Marching Home