Yale Glee Club
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The Yale Glee Club is a mixed
chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...
of men and women, consisting of students of
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
in
New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
. Founded in 1861, it is the third oldest collegiate chorus in the United States after the
Harvard Glee Club The Harvard Glee Club is a 60-voice, Tenor-Bass choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1858 in the tradition of English and American glee clubs, it is the oldest collegiate chorus in the United States. The Glee Club is part of the H ...
, founded in 1858, and the
University of Michigan Men's Glee Club The University of Michigan Men's Glee Club is an all-male glee club (or choir) 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 ...
, founded in 1859. The Glee Club performs several concerts each year in New Haven and goes on tour each January. According to music critic
Zachary Woolfe Zachary Woolfe is an American music critic who specializes in classical music. Since 2022 he has been chief classical music critic for ''The New York Times''. Education and career Woolfe studied at Princeton University. Although he "had wri ...
of the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', it is "one of the best collegiate singing ensembles, and one of the most adventurous." Its members are "world famous for their harmonic precision" per ''New York Times'' music critic Robert Sherman.


Organization


Leadership

The Glee Club is conducted by a member of the university faculty, and the work of running the organization has traditionally been divided between the director, the office manager, and a team of undergraduate student officers. The Glee Club's director generally holds a faculty position in the
Yale School of Music The Yale School of Music (often abbreviated to YSM) is one of the 12 professional schools at Yale University. It offers three graduate degrees: Master of Music (MM), Master of Musical Arts (MMA), and Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), as well as a joi ...
as the
Marshall Bartholomew Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, a ...
Professor of Choral Conducting. A large part of the work of planning concert tours is done by student tour managers.


Current membership

Most members of the Glee Club are undergraduate students, but the group also admits students from the graduate and professional schools. Membership in the group is determined each fall by audition. Members of the group may be majors in any subject. Many members of the group are also involved in other musical pursuits on campus. The Glee Club typically consists of 70 to 90 student singers. When large-scale classical choral works require more voices, the Glee Club may team up with Yale's other choruses, the Yale Camerata and the Yale Schola Cantorum, or add other singers as needed.


Past membership

The Glee Club was initially composed of men only (since
Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
was only open to men). In 1969, Yale admitted its first female undergraduates, which led to the establishment of the Yale Women's Chorus. The following year, the Yale Women's Chorus was absorbed into the Glee Club to form a mixed chorus. Despite the fact that a ''
glee club 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 w ...
'' is typically an all-male chorus, the organization elected to retain its name. Although the group was once open to students only after their first year of college, in 2003 the Glee Club began to include undergraduates from all four years. Several alumni of the group have gone on to professional careers in music, including
Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed f ...
,
Douglas Moore Douglas Stuart Moore (August 10, 1893 – July 25, 1969) was an American composer, songwriter, organist, pianist, conductor, educator, actor, and author. A composer who mainly wrote works with an American subject, his music is generally charact ...
,
Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to ...
, John Stewart and
Marshall Bartholomew Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, a ...
, both of whom returned to Yale to conduct the Glee Club.


Programs

The Glee Club works with
New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
high school students each year as part of an annual choral festival. Outreach and service activities incorporated into tours were a central focus of the Glee Club's 2007 domestic tour to the Gulf Coast states. The Glee Club's annual Emerging Composers Competition encourages new works for mixed chorus, and the Fenno Heath Award encourages the creation of new Yale songs. Both competitions were inaugurated in the fall of 2005 with the world premieres of ''Laus Trinitati'' by
Jocelyn Hagen Jocelyn Hagen is an American composer. She composes primarily for voice: solo, chamber and choral, but also has composed for chamber, wind, and orchestral ensembles. She has explored large-scale multimedia works, electro-acoustic music, dance, an ...
and ''A Modern Toast to Yale'' by
Zachary Sandler Zachary is a male given name, a variant of Zechariah – the name of several Biblical characters. People * Pope Zachary (679–752), Pope of the Catholic Church from 741 to 752 * Zachary of Vienne (died 106), bishop of Vienne (France), martyr ...
. The Glee Club has an alumni association, the Yale Glee Club Associates, which offers advice and financial support to the Glee Club. The YGCA has formed a chorus of its own called the Yale Alumni Chorus.Yale Alumni Chorus
/ref> This chorus gives alumni an opportunity to resume old friendships and enjoy the songs of their Glee Club years while traveling and giving concerts in foreign countries.


History

Like many of the old American college Glee Clubs, the Yale Glee Club began as a small association of students to sing glees. This tradition was continued for most of the 19th and early 20th century. Many of these original songs are maintained as part of the Glee Club's "Blue Book" (''Songs of Yale''), which contains the old glees and the principal Yale songs.


Directors

The Yale Glee Club has had seven directors since the appointment of its first faculty adviser: *c. 1868-1873: Gustave J. Stoeckel *1873-1905: Thomas G. Shepard *1905-1921: G. Frank Goodale (Yale Sheffield Scientific School B.S. 1889) *1921-1953:
Marshall Bartholomew Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, a ...
(Yale Sheffield Scientific School B.S. 1907) *1953-1992: Fenno F. Heath, Jr. (Yale B.A. 1950, M.A. 1952) *1992-2002: David H. Connell (Yale D.M.A. 1991) *2002-2003: Timothy Snyder (Yale M.M. 1998) (interim director) *2003–present: Jeffrey Douma The group's fourth director, Marshall Bartholomew, encouraged the group to undertake more difficult and classical works, adding considerably to the group's repertoire. He created arrangements of many spirituals and folk songs, many published by the G. Schirmer company as the "Yale Glee Club Series." Bartholomew's successor, Fenno Heath, composed many original works and after 1970 rearranged many of his own and Bartholomew's pieces for mixed chorus when the Glee Club admitted women. David Connell continued the tradition of arranging pieces for the group, including madrigals and sea chanteys. Director Jeffrey Douma has also contributed his own arrangements to the Glee Club's library. Under his direction, the Glee Club has appeared in performances guest conducted by
David Willcocks Sir David Valentine Willcocks, (30 December 1919 – 17 September 2015) was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambr ...
,
Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', ''Polish Requiem'', ''A ...
,
Sir Neville Marriner Sir Neville Marriner, (15 April 1924 – 2 October 2016) was an English violinist and "one of the world's greatest conducting, conductors". Gramophone (magazine), Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another com ...
, and
Helmuth Rilling Helmuth Rilling (born 29 May 1933) is a German choral conductor and an academic teacher. He is the founder of the Gächinger Kantorei (1954), the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (1965), the Oregon Bach Festival (1970), the Internationale Bachakademie S ...
.


Tours

The Glee Club has regularly made domestic tours since 1866 and international concert tours since 1928. Domestic tours occur annually and international tours typically occur every two or three years. Touring has helped the Glee Club find a mission as "ambassadors of song." Today, tours are managed by a pair of current Glee Clubbers. The position of Tour Co-Manager is the only Glee Club office that is not chosen by election; rather, the director and staff manager appoint tour managers based on their submission of a proposed itinerary. Prospective tour co-managers write their proposal and apply together. The Glee Club was one of the first U.S. college musical groups to tour abroad. International destinations of its many tours have included: *Seventeen tours of Europe, with the original 1928 tour retraced for the Glee Club's 150th Anniversary in 2011 *South and/or Central America in 1941, 1961, 1968, 1975, and 2009 *A "'Round-the-world" tour in 1965 *East Asia in 1996 *Bermuda or the Caribbean in 1930, 1951, 2000, 2010, and 2014 *Five countries in Africa in 2002 *New Zealand and Australia in 2005 *Istanbul with the Yale Alumni Chorus in 2011 *Mainland China and Hong Kong in 2013


References


External links


Yale Glee Club official web siteYale Alumni Chorus Foundation official web site
*DeWerff, Timothy J. "Louder Yet the Chorus Raise!": An Illustrated History of the Yale Glee Club, 1861–2011. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale Glee Club, 2011. *"The First Hundred Years: 1861-1961," a pamphlet on the history of the glee club. {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1861 Glee clubs
Glee Club 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 w ...
1861 establishments in Connecticut