In the spring of 1948 Ralph Schwarz, a student at Lehigh University with stage production experience gained in the Army, collaborated with William Schempf, Lehigh’s music director, to produce an event that would take advantage of the many talents of the university’s students. The school’s marching band, glee club, Collegian dance band, and the Moravian College glee club, with the assistance of a great number of students and faculty, came together to perform the first Lehigh Music Festival in Grace Hall. The 1948 event was well received. In previous years, the university’s glee club would simply perform on the stage of a local auditorium. Schwarz had a vision that included interpreting the music with, “lights, color, gymnasts, marching soldiers – a mood to express each score.” To accomplish his objectives, he relied not only on the talents of his performers, but also on the technological abilities of Lehigh’s engineering students. Some examples of the technology employed in the 1948 production include the use of steam to create a “steam curtain” between the performers and the audience and the deployment of an 1,800 square foot rear projection screen dyed with a florescent medium that was produced by a local mill.

Coverage of the 1948 festival was featured in the national media and the school was determined to produce an even more elaborate production in 1949. Schwarz and Schempf each assumed their previous roles in the production. The festival was divided into three parts. The first part, titled “Bach to Bop,” featured 21 songs in a variety of styles including the American debut of Romanian composer Niku Chircoulescu’s Boolia Bashka. The second part, titled, “Glory of Lehigh,” coupled 17 songs with the projection of photographs depicting different aspects of Lehigh history and academic life. The third part was titled “Man Would Be Free.” This ambitious number, based on Study of History by Princeton University historian Arnold J. Toynbee, featured narration adapted from the work by Lehigh Associate Professor of History William A. Aiken. Schempf created a musical score to help interpret the historical and philosophical ideas of the work which, according to the program, examines “challenges to freedom in an attempt to discover what our answer should be to the struggle between East and West – between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A.”

Some of the more notable technical features of the 1949 festival included adapting a large-scale projector with a cooling system which employed a blower from a vacuum cleaner and a water bath, developing a studio in Drown Hall to create slides for projection, and building a projection screen with pivoting panels that was capable of showing slides with a three-dimensional effect. Students also created a “nitrogen curtain” that sprayed liquid nitrogen from the ceiling to create a heavy mist timed to blend with other effects to enhance various parts of the program.

By all accounts the festival was a rousing success, entertaining thousands with a creative blend of music, photography, dance, narration, and special effects. Success, however, was not measured just by the audience’s response to the production. The Lehigh Alumni Bulletin reported that, “The men of Lehigh had learned a lesson in cooperation and teamwork. They had found that each occupation has its appointed place in society and that each must function with the rest if any measure of success is to be achieved.”

Ralph G. Schwarz produced and directed the 1949 Lehigh Music Festival at Lehigh University. Schwarz received a B.A. in mechanical engineering and international relations (1948) and an M.A. in history (1951) from Lehigh University, and a Doctor of Humanities from Indiana State University in 1974. He also studied at the Sorbonne and the University of Vienna. During World War II he helped direct large-scale shows for the army and he directed a stage show in Paris to complete his dramatic course at the Sorbonne.

Schwarz also organized the 1948 Lehigh Music Festival during his senior year at Lehigh. After graduation, he was hired as an assistant on the staff of the dean to head the festival organization. He subsequently enlisted more than 1,000 Lehigh students and faculty to develop the 1949 festival.