POMONA COLLEGE SONG BOOK
Los Angeles: R.W. Heffelfinger, 1912. First Edition. Hardcover. Tall octavo: 64 pp. with 4 photographic plates of scenery near the campus. Original blue cloth binding, with gilt-stamped titling. Some nibbling by silverfish to the lower margin of the last few leaves, with a brief ink notation to the rear flyleaf and a small scuff to the rear pastedown. The boards are edgeworn and moderately toned, with a bit of minor mottling.
The first song book of Pomona College, the nationally-ranked liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Music has always been important at Pomona, founded in 1887. The men’s Glee Club, launched in 1891, is one of the oldest student organizations on campus. Assembled by members of the Class of 1914, the song book includes the Pomona alma mater, “Hail, Pomona Hail”, which was then just two years old, as well as “Ghost Dance”, co-written by a faculty member, now known (with different lyrics and a new arrangement) as “Torchbearers”, one of the college’s best-known songs.
Raymond W. Heffelfinger (1885-1919) was a nationally-known sheet music retailer, one of the chief organizers of the National Association of Sheet Music Dealers. While his principal business was running the sheet music department at George J. Birkel Co., the downtown Los Angeles music house, he ran a music publishing business on the side. He died during the 1918-19 flu pandemic. Good. Item #79987
Price: $75.00