Professor of Music, Wayne State University
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
1976
Citation:
Music is the language of the heart. No form of human endeavor so perfectly expresses our joys and our exaltations, our plaintive moods and our grandest hopes. Music infuses its listeners with the feelings it expresses, and it has the power to transform an audience of individuals into a tight-knit unity. Organ music in particular resonates with every nuance of human feeling, and in choral music the fusion of voices inevitably invites a warm community of response. Malcom Maclean Johns, you are widely known for your preeminence in choral conducting and organ music. Through your many summers of research abroad and your Ethnic Salute Concerts in Detroit since 1963, you have filled your audiences with pride in their ethnic heritage. Your 150-member Choral Union at Wayne State University has regularly performed to the intense delight of large audiences. In March 1973 you honored the University of Detroit with a special concert on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of SS. Peter and Paul Church. You have premiered more than sixty choral works over the past fifteen years. Your deep dedication to the cause of religious music is well knows; it has been a source of religious inspiration to countless persons of diverse backgrounds. Professor Johns, for more than thirty-five years your music has raised the minds and hearts of Detroiters to the Creator of all that is noble and beautiful, and you have filled us with the joyous sense of our common human condition. We are grateful for what you have accomplished and we are deeply proud to be able to honor you today. Reverend President, it is my privilege to present Professor Malcolm M. Johns for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. Commencement, University of Detroit, May 15, 1976.