Composer Dr. Eugene Butler rose from his seat after the premiere performance of his song “If Music Be the Food of Love”, performed by the Treble Ladies at the choir concert on Tuesday, March 10, then walked to the stage where he embraced music teacher Sheree Stoppel on the stage and posed for a picture.

At the choir concert, the Treble Ladies and Jag Chorale sang “The White Moon” and “If Music Be the Food of Love” that were composed by Dr. Eugene Butler who was in attendance at the concert.  The song had not even been published yet, when Stoppel acquired the piece from Dr. Butler.

“Sheree had asked me if I had something new and I did,” Butler said.” I had this woman chorus number that I just composed. I sent her a copy and the next thing I knew she emails me and tells me that [she was] rehearsing it.”

Dr. Butler writes his song with the group of people he wants to sing it in mind and had high expectations for the Mill Valley choir.

“Whenever I write I always have a high school choir in mind for vocal ranges,” Butler said.  “I always try to fit  [the song] to a good high school.  This is one of of the bigger schools in Kansas and you just expect excellence and good singing.”

“If Music Be the Food of Love” was a poem based on the poet Heaverman.
“It is about music being the expression of feeling and love and passion,” Butler said. “And just how great [music] is and life is not worth as much without music. It is kind of a love song but not necessarily a boy-girl kind of love but a person’s’ love for music.”

There were a lot of expectations for the premiere for Dr. Butler’s song, therefore sophomore Savannah Chappell and the Treble Ladies worked hard to perfect the song.

“There were definitely higher expectations for this song because he was going to be there,” Chappell said. “It was his original piece and it was the new stuff. We worked on it a lot more than we did with other songs.”

After the premiere of Dr. Butler’s song, he stood up from his chair in the audience and applauded the Treble Ladies and Mrs. Stoppel.

“It was a nice experience tonight for me as, and the kids seemed to enjoy it,” Dr. Butler said. “Mrs. Stoppel is a master teacher and [the song] was sung very nice tonight, of course their was a feeling of success. I feel happy, elated and successful.  It sounds like I wanted it to sound the young people did a sterling job.”

For first time in choir history, a composer of a specific piece was in attendance.

“I thought it was so cool that we had an original piece that we were going to perform,” Chappell said. “It was definitely an honor that I may never get to experience in my life again. It will probably go down in history as the Mill Valley as the Treble Ladies Choir of 2015.”