Glee club

Last updated

The Miami University Glee Club in 1907 Miami University Men's Glee Club 1907.jpg
The Miami University Glee Club in 1907

A glee club in the United States is a musical group or choir group, historically of male voices but also of female or mixed voices, which traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs by trios or quartets. In the late 19th century it was very popular in most schools and was made a tradition to have in American high schools from then on.

Contents

Glee clubs were named after a form of English part song, called a glee, which they typically sang. The first named Glee Club held its initial meeting in the Newcastle Coffee House in London in 1787. [1] Glee clubs were very popular in Britain from then until the mid-1850s but by then they were gradually being superseded by larger choral societies. By the mid-20th century, proper glee clubs were no longer common.

Testifying to the importance of glee clubs in 19th Century America, Henry Stone, a Union veteran of the American Civil War, recalled that "A glee club came down from Chicago, bringing with them the new song, "We'll rally 'round the flag, boys" (Battle Cry of Freedom), and it ran through the camp like wildfire. The effect was little short of miraculous. It put as much spirit and cheer into the army as a victory."

The term remains in contemporary use, for choirs established in North American colleges, universities, and high schools, although most American glee clubs are choruses in the standard sense, and rarely perform glees.

Oldest United States collegiate glee clubs

President Herbert Hoover with Harvard Glee Club on April 8, 1929 Hoover with Harvard Glee Club, 4-8-29 LCCN2016843635.tif
President Herbert Hoover with Harvard Glee Club on April 8, 1929

The oldest collegiate glee clubs in the United States are, by year of foundation:

The oldest non-collegiate glee club in the United States is the Mendelssohn Glee Club, founded in 1866. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin</span> Athletic conference in the NCAA

The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) is a college athletic conference which competes in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The Oberlin Group of Libraries is a consortium of liberal arts college libraries. The group evolved from meetings of college presidents in 1985 and 1986 at Oberlin College. As of 2021, it has 80 members.

The Harvard Choruses are three choral ensembles at Harvard University, consisting of the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum Each year the three Harvard Choruses combine to perform a large choral-orchestral work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Michigan Men's Glee Club</span> American choir

The University of Michigan Men's Glee Club is an all-male glee club at the University of Michigan. With roots tracing back to 1859, it is the second oldest glee club in the United States and is the oldest student organization at the university. The club has won the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod on four separate occasions. Since 2018, the Club's musical director has been Mark Stover, who has continued to expand the Club's repertoire and arranged performances.

Jerry Blackstone is a Grammy Award winning American choral conductor. He was the Director of Choirs and Chair of the Conducting Department at the University of Michigan and the Music Director of the University Musical Society Choral Union.

Frank Scott Albinder is a conductor of male choral music. A former director of Chanticleer, Albinder currently conducts the Washington Men's Camerata, the Woodley Ensemble, and the Virginia Glee Club, and is president of Intercollegiate Men's Choruses, Inc., a national association of men's choruses. Albinder designed the concept and chose the repertoire for Chanticleer's Grammy Award winning album Colors of Love. Albinder holds degrees in conducting and vocal performance. Perhaps his best known work is the vocal solo of Loch Lomond, featured on the Chanticleer album Wondrous Love. He is a past president of the Alumni Association of Pomona College in Claremont, California. Albinder lives and works primarily in the District of Columbia.

The Purdue Varsity Glee Club is one of the principal vocal groups of Purdue University. It sings a wide variety of music comprising novelty, patriotic, classical, inspirational, jazz, pop, and barbershop genres. The group currently consists of roughly 60-70 tenors and basses, includes a live accompanying band, and is one of six ensembles associated with Purdue Musical Organizations. In the fall of 2018, the Purdue Varsity Glee Club celebrated its 125th anniversary.

The Fairfield University Glee Club is a mixed chorus of about 60 undergraduate and graduate singers at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. The Glee Club has performed in churches, schools and recital and concert halls throughout Europe, singing from Galway to Rome and Florence to London. The choir has performed at Carnegie Hall, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Westminster Cathedral in London, the Aula Paolo VI at the Vatican and the U.S. military academies at West Point and Annapolis.

The Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges (CLAC) is a nonprofit organization of 75 American liberal arts colleges which formed in 1984 under the leadership of Oberlin College's president S. Frederick Starr. CLAC brings together the IT professionals from its member colleges and universities to help those institutions make the best use of technology to enrich students’ learning, facilitate teaching and research, and to support the business of the higher education. CLAC has been supporting collaboration, knowledge sharing, professional growth of its IT members, and advocacy for the liberal arts at the national level for more three decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princeton Glee Club</span> University choir for Princeton University

The Princeton University Glee Club is the oldest and most prestigious choir at Princeton University, composed of approximately 100 mixed voices. They give multiple performances throughout the year featuring music from Renaissance to Modern, and also tour internationally biannually. They have performed recently with Bobby McFerrin, Roomful of Teeth, Calmus, and a collection of the world's premier oktavists. Currently the Glee Club is led by Gabriel Crouch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgia Tech Glee Club</span> Musical artist

The Georgia Tech Glee Club is an a cappella singing group founded in 1906 at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It is a student-run glee club currently directed by Dr. Jerry Ulrich. The Glee Club sings all original arrangements and compositions arranged by Dr. Ulrich and by members of the group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ohio State University Men's Glee Club</span>

The Ohio State University Men's Glee Club is an all-male choral ensemble at The Ohio State University. Officially founded in 1875, the Men's Glee Club is one of the oldest student organizations on Ohio State's campus and one of the oldest collegiate glee clubs in the United States. The group has garnered many accolades, most notably winning Choir of the World 1990 from the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.

The Morehouse College Glee Club, founded in 1911, is the official choral group of Morehouse College. The Glee Club has a long tradition of many notable public appearances, having performed at Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral, President Jimmy Carter's inauguration, Super Bowl XXVIII, and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The Glee Club's international performances include tours in Africa, Russia, Poland and the Caribbean. The group also appeared on the soundtrack for the movie School Daze, directed by Morehouse alumnus Spike Lee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wheaton College Men's Glee Club</span>

The Wheaton College Men's Glee Club is an all-male glee club, at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois currently conducted by Dr. Jerry Blackstone.

John Barry Talley was a musical director at the United States Naval Academy.

The Pennsylvania State University Glee Club is an all-male choral ensemble at Pennsylvania State University. The Glee Club is one of the top choral ensembles at Penn State and considered to be one of the best of its kind in the country. Founded in 1888, the Penn State Glee club is the oldest organization at Penn State consisting of 60-80 undergraduate and graduate men from all colleges of the University. The Glee Club performs several concerts each year and goes on a tour during spring break. The Glee Club performs a variety of music from Broadway to Classical music, and has its place in Penn State tradition by singing University fight songs and performing at numerous events. Dr. Christopher Kiver is the current director of the Penn State Glee Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1892 Purdue Boilermakers football team</span> American college football season

The 1892 Purdue Boilermakers football team represented Purdue University in the 1892 college football season. In their second year under head coach Knowlton Ames, the Boilermakers compiled an undefeated 8–0 record and outscored their opponents by a total of 320 to 24, including victories over Illinois (12–6), Wisconsin (32–4), Michigan (24–0), Indiana (68–0), and Chicago (38–0). Archibald Stevenson was the team captain.

Howard Shelton Swan was an American choral conductor, tenor, music educator, and writer on music. A highly influential figure in American choral music during the 20th century, Swan was sometimes referred to as the "Dean of American Choral Directors" during his lifetime. A choral director and professor of voice at Occidental College from 1934 through 1971, his choirs at Occidental gained international critical acclaim. Conductor Robert Shaw stated about Swan's choral work at Occidental that it was "the most distinguished and varied choral repertoire at the highest level of performance in American collegiate history."

References

  1. Bacon, Richard Mackenzie (1820). "The Catch and Glee Clubs". The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review. London. II (VII): 328ff.
  2. "History of the Harvard Glee Club" . Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  3. Mark Slobin (2010). "A Remarkably Musical Campus" (PDF). Wesleyan (11): 32–35. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 6, 2014.
  4. "The University of Pennsylvania Archives".
  5. "Amherst Glee Club Website". Archived from the original on June 28, 2011.
  6. "Glee Club History". Archived from the original on January 7, 2009. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
  7. Bruce, Philip Alexander (1921). History of the University of Virginia, 1818-1919. Vol. IV. MacMillan. pp. 127–128, 841.
  8. "RU Glee Club History". Archived from the original on July 17, 2010. Retrieved January 21, 2010.
  9. "Glee Club". Columbia College and Columbia Engineering. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  10. "Official webpage of the Ohio State University Men's Glee Club". January 27, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  11. "Choral Ensembles". Mount Holyoke College. November 15, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  12. "Varsity Men's Glee Club | Music at Illinois". music.illinois.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
  13. "Penn State Glee Club history" . Retrieved August 8, 2015.
  14. "The Men's Glee Club (1892–1982)". Pomona College Choir and Glee Club. Pomona College . Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  15. "Academics". Wabash College. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  16. "University of Michigan Women's Glee Club" . Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  17. "Purdue Varsity Glee Club History" . Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  18. "The History of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Singing Cadets" . Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  19. "The Women's Glee Club (1902–1982)". Pomona College Choir and Glee Club. Pomona College. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  20. "The United States Military Academy Glee Club" . Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  21. "About the Georgia Tech Glee Club" . Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  22. "Wheaton College Men's Glee Club". Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
  23. "The Official Morehouse Glee Club Website" . Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  24. "Choir at LSU" . Retrieved December 3, 2020.
  25. New York Library for the Performing Arts. "Mendelssohn Club Papers" (PDF). Retrieved February 25, 2011.

Further reading