The Graduate

The first of our pack graduated recently from McGill University in Montreal. It was a happy and sad moment for us. We are glad that he finished. But we are sad that we won’t have a good reason to visit Montreal. If you have never been to this city, I encourage you to go. It is a great place to visit. And McGill is a great school. Now, I have been to lots of graduations. In fact, I have been a part of lots of graduations as a graduate and as faculty. But this one was a bit unique. First of all, it was the last of 12 commencements held in a HUGE tent over 6 days. Each school has its own ceremony with the School of Music the last. The dignitaries are piped in to the tent by a piper and the graduates have 2 pipers that escort them in. After all, it is MC Gill. Most of the faculty have those darling black velvet floppy hats with a big brim and a bit of gold braid. And McGill’s school color is red so the black robes are trimmed in scarlet. The color of the hood for music is “mauve” which really looks like lavender. Each baccalaureate graduate wears one trimmed in fake white fur. Also very cute. Now, each graduation has the required parts – the lengthy speech by someone distinguished, the granting of degrees to PhD/EdD/MBA….. well, you get the picture, and then the undergraduates get their degrees. And sometimes they will award honorary degrees. We had it all.





The new Chancellor spoke to the gathering about the importance of taking care of your health. An interesting subject for young music graduates. But he was quite elderly and he did stress that if you took care of yourself, you would be less of a burden on society. Hmmm…… And we did have an honorary degree award. Olivier Latry, the organist from Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris France was given a doctorate. As part of the ceremony, the honoree is usually expected to give a speech – on health or whatever they want to talk about. But THIS dean pulled a fast one on this guy. He opened a sealed envelope and handed the man a piece of paper. Latry was then escorted off the stage and taken out of the tent to Redpath Hall (a huge old granite building on the quad). This building used to be the library when the school first began. Now it houses the University’s mammoth manual organ with LOTS of keys and LOTS of stops.

In Redpath Hall, Latry is then expected to improvise for a very long time on the two little tunes he found on the piece of paper. And the tunes are very different. One is a chant – Ave Maria – and the other is this little wisp of notes that swoop up and abruptly stop and then swoop again and stop. And with a bit of dissonance thrown in. Now, this is no ordinary music school. It offers degrees in music recording and videoing. So while Dr. (almost) Latry is in a building to our left, we-in-the-tent can see him on these giant TV screens mounted above us.

AND we have surround sound to enjoy his performance. So, he starts by playing each little tune. And then he is off. And I never hear ANYTHING that even REMOTELY sounds like one of those tunes again. And he plays on…… and on……. And I feel that the whole experience is a bit musically intellectual as the faculty on stage and the students up front are smiling and swaying and looking like they are eating the best piece of chocolate EVER. And then it is over and he bows and we applaud – can he even hear us? And the ceremony continues. Now, he has just gotten a doctorate and he never even uttered one word. Another cute custom at McGill is to hit the graduates as they cross the stage to get their diploma. If you have never gotten a degree before, you get hit on the head. If you have a degree and are getting another, you get hit on the shoulder. No one was injured although several reached out as if to take the stick from the old guy hitting them…… or were they trying to shake his hand and he would have none of it?
And then all are graduated and all are piped out and we can go to Redpath Hall (of organ fame) for a little light refreshments. All 500 try to get through a set of very narrow old doors and, of course, the caterers put the wine RIGHT by the door so that everyone stops to get a glass and then just STANDS there. Mark and I get our wine and grab a brownie and hug our kid who has done so well and look for the exit. Thank goodness we have a while before the next one.