"Stout-Hearted Men”
The forgotten anthem of Gamma Kappa Phi By: Vicente Baquial, Founding Member
STOUT-HEARTED MEN
Give me some men who are stout-hearted men, Who will fight, for the right they adore. Start me with ten who are stout-hearted men, And I’ll soon give you ten thousand more. Shoulder to shoulder and bolder and bolder, They grow as they go to the fore. Then there’s nothing in the world can halt or mar a plan, When stout-hearted men can stick together man to man.
You who have dreams, if you act they will come true, To turn your dreams to a fact, it’s up to you. If you have the soul and the spirit, Never fear it, you’ll see it thru. Hearts can inspire, other hearts with their fire, For the strong obey when a strong man shows them the way.
This song was adapted by the Founding Members of Gamma Kappa Phi as the "official song” of the Fraternity. Aside from the lively rhythm of the music, the lyrics encapsulate the youthful ideals of the Fraternity Brothers: courage to act in the face of adversity, unity in brotherhood, leadership, pursuit of dreams and aspirations.
That the song says "Start me with ten, who are stout-hearted men, And I’ll soon give you ten thousand more,” and that Gamma Kappa Phi started with ten founding members, is nothing more but simple coincidence. However, such coincidence gave impetus to the ten founders to embrace the song as "theirs,” because the song seemed to prophesy that if they are indeed "stout-hearted men” the Fraternity will soon grow to "ten thousand more.”
The ten Founding Members once sang this song on stage during a school program at Divine Word College (now Holy Name University).
(Note: For the music, please go to Google or YouTube. You will find several artists/performers with their versions of singing this song.)
What about the song "The High and the Mighty?”
In the early 1960’s, when cell phones and pagers were not yet invented, students of Divine Word College came up with a simple but handy way of communicating with their friends or barkadas in a crowd situation: thru whistling (sipol in Tagalog, taghoy in Visayan). Each barkada or group of friends adapt a few notes or bars of a song of their choice, and use this as their "call signal” or "locator signal.”
For example, during a school activity or program you would like to find where your friends are seated in an auditorium full of 1,500 people. You simply whistle your group’s peculiar "call signal,” and the replying whistle will indicate their location. Or, your group has agreed to participate in a Good Friday procession, but due to the big number of devotees you are dispersed among the church crowd. So, whistle your "call signal” and, one by one, sooner or later, your entire group will be gathered together. Thus the whistle signal was used to call, locate, and/or gather members in one place.
The members of the Gentlemen’s Club (and later as Gamma Kappa Phi Fraternity), like the other groups at Divine Word College, also adapted their own peculiar whistle "call signal.” The tune selected: the opening bars of a hauntingly beautiful music, very appropriate for whistling, came from the theme song of a popular John Wayne movie titled "The High and the Mighty.” The Fraternity brothers at that time did not concern themselves with the lyrics of the song, neither did they attribute any significance to the title "The High and the Mighty.” It simply happened to be the title of the movie, and hence the title of the song. They simply used the exquisite whistling music as their "call signal.”
(Note: Please go to Google or YouTube to listen to different versions of the song "The High and the Mighty.” When you listen to the "whistled” version, maybe you will appreciate why the founding members selected this as their "call signal.”)
Development / Fate of the two songs as the years went by.
Fast forward to the year 2009 and thereafter.
It seems no Kappan of today know of, heard of, much more know how to sing "Stout-Hearted Men,” except perhaps the living Founders themselves and some of the earlier new members. What was once the anthem of Gamma Kappa Phi, with lyrics pregnant with meaning and significance to the original members, has not been passed on to the succeeding batches/generations of new members, thus slowly fading from organizational memory, till finally nowadays forgotten and unheard of.
On the other hand, "The High and the Mighty” has been elevated to an "anthem” status (which should have been the rightful place of "Stout-Hearted Men”), the lyrics sang during GKP programs, the phrase "high and mighty” bantered about and exchanged among Kappans as a badge of recognition, or greeting. Ironically, the practice of whistling the song, has been discontinued and forgotten!
Suggestion
With the upcoming Constitutional Commission Conference in December this year, intended to amend GKPI’s existing Constitution and By-Laws to be in keeping with the times and today’s practices and protocols, I humbly suggest to include a discussion regarding these two songs which have played, and will probably play, some significant roles in the organization’s past, present, and future.
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