Yale Glee Club
Encyclopedia
The Yale Glee Club is a mixed chorus
of men and women, consisting of students of Yale University
in New Haven, Connecticut
. Founded in 1861, it is the third oldest collegiate chorus in the United States after the Harvard Glee Club
, founded in 1858, and the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club
, 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 of the New York Times, 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.
as the Marshall Bartholomew Professor of Choral Conducting. A large part of the work of planning concert tours is done by student tour managers.
, or add other singers as needed.
was only open to men). In 1969, Yale admitted its first female undergraduates. That year, then director of the Glee Club Fenno Heath helped to found the first female organization on campus- "The New Blue of Yale
," an a cappella group for women. The following year, the Glee Club changed from an all-male chorus to a mixed chorus. Despite the fact that a glee club
is typically an all-male chorus, the organization elected to retain its name. Although the group was formerly open to all students only after their first year, in 2003 the Glee Club began to include undergraduates of all four years.
Several alumni of the group have gone on to professional careers in music, including Charles Ives
, Cole Porter
, John Stewart
and Fenno Heath
and Marshall Bartholomew, both of whom returned to Yale to conduct the Glee Club.
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 and A Modern Toast to Yale by Zachary Sandler.
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. 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.
. This tradition was continued for most of the nineteenth and early twentieth 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.
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, Krzysztof Penderecki
, Sir Neville Marriner
, and Helmuth Rilling
.
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:
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
of men and women, consisting of students of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
. Founded in 1861, it is the third oldest collegiate chorus in the United States after the Harvard Glee Club
Harvard Glee Club
The Harvard Glee Club is a 60-voice, all-male 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 US. The Glee Club is part of the Holden Choruses of Harvard University, which also include the...
, founded in 1858, and the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club
University of Michigan Men's Glee Club
The University of Michigan Men's Glee Club is an all-male glee club at the University of Michigan currently conducted by Eugene Rogers. 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...
, 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 of the New York Times, 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.
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 MusicYale School of Music
The Yale School of Music is one of the twelve professional schools at Yale University and one of the premier music conservatories in the world....
as the Marshall Bartholomew 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 CantorumYale Schola Cantorum
The Yale Schola Cantorum is a 24-voice vocal ensemble jointly sponsored by the Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. The Schola Cantorum is open by audition to any student at Yale University, although most of its singers are affiliated with the School of Music...
, or add other singers as needed.
Past Membership
The Glee Club was initially composed of men only (since Yale CollegeYale College
Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...
was only open to men). In 1969, Yale admitted its first female undergraduates. That year, then director of the Glee Club Fenno Heath helped to found the first female organization on campus- "The New Blue of Yale
The New Blue of Yale
The New Blue of Yale University is the oldest undergraduate female a cappella group in the Ivy League. Founded in 1969 as Yale's first women's organization of any kind, The New Blue has almost four decades of professional entertainment and inspiring musicality...
," an a cappella group for women. The following year, the Glee Club changed from an all-male chorus to a mixed chorus. Despite the fact that a glee club
Glee club
A glee club 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—glees—by trios or quartets. In the late 19th Century it was very popular in most schools and was made a tradition...
is typically an all-male chorus, the organization elected to retain its name. Although the group was formerly open to all students only after their first year, in 2003 the Glee Club began to include undergraduates of all four years.
Several alumni of the group have gone on to professional careers in music, including Charles Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
, Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
, John Stewart
John Stewart (tenor)
John Harger Stewart is an American tenor, conductor, and voice teacher who had an active international singing career in concerts and operas from 1964 to 1990. He began his career singing regularly with the Santa Fe Opera from the mid 1960s through the early 1970s; after which he appeared only...
and Fenno Heath
Fenno Heath
Fenno Follansbee Heath, Jr. was an American conductor, composer, and arranger of choral music.Heath attended Yale University, where he majored in music and graduated in 1950. As an undergraduate he sang in the Yale Freshman Chorus, the Apollo Glee Club, the Yale Glee Club, and the Spizzwinks, the...
and Marshall Bartholomew, both of whom returned to Yale to conduct the Glee Club.
Programs
The Glee Club works with New Haven 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
Fenno Heath
Fenno Follansbee Heath, Jr. was an American conductor, composer, and arranger of choral music.Heath attended Yale University, where he majored in music and graduated in 1950. As an undergraduate he sang in the Yale Freshman Chorus, the Apollo Glee Club, the Yale Glee Club, and the Spizzwinks, the...
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 and A Modern Toast to Yale by Zachary Sandler.
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. 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 gleesGlee (music)
A glee is an English type of part song spanning the late baroque, classical and early romantic periods. It is usually scored for at least three voices, and generally intended to be sung unaccompanied. Glees often consist of a number of short, musically contrasted movements and their texts can be...
. This tradition was continued for most of the nineteenth and early twentieth 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. StoeckelGustave J. StoeckelGustave Jakob Stoeckel was a longtime music instructor and college organist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Born in Bavaria, Stoeckel came to the United States in 1848, and joined the University in 1855 when he was appointed organist of Yale College Chapel...
- 1873-1905: Thomas G. Shepard
- 1905-1921: G. Frank Goodale (Yale Sheffield Scientific School B.S. 1889)
- 1921-1953: Marshall Bartholomew (Yale Sheffield Scientific School B.S. 1907)
- 1953-1992: Fenno F. Heath, Jr.Fenno HeathFenno Follansbee Heath, Jr. was an American conductor, composer, and arranger of choral music.Heath attended Yale University, where he majored in music and graduated in 1950. As an undergraduate he sang in the Yale Freshman Chorus, the Apollo Glee Club, the Yale Glee Club, and the Spizzwinks, the...
(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 DoumaJeffrey DoumaJeffrey Douma is the Director of the Yale Glee Club and an Associate Professor of Conducting at the Yale School of Music. Prior to his appointment at Yale in 2003, he taught at Carroll University, where he was Director of Choral Activities, and also served on the conducting faculties of Smith...
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
G. Schirmer
G. Schirmer Inc. is an American classical music publishing company based in New York City, founded in 1861. It publishes sheet music for sale and rental, and represents some well-known European music publishers in North America, such as the Italian Ricordi, Music Sales Affiliates ChesterNovello,...
company as the "Yale Glee Club Series."
Bartholomew's successor, Fenno Heath
Fenno Heath
Fenno Follansbee Heath, Jr. was an American conductor, composer, and arranger of choral music.Heath attended Yale University, where he majored in music and graduated in 1950. As an undergraduate he sang in the Yale Freshman Chorus, the Apollo Glee Club, the Yale Glee Club, and the Spizzwinks, the...
, 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
Jeffrey Douma
Jeffrey Douma is the Director of the Yale Glee Club and an Associate Professor of Conducting at the Yale School of Music. Prior to his appointment at Yale in 2003, he taught at Carroll University, where he was Director of Choral Activities, and also served on the conducting faculties of Smith...
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, Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...
, Sir Neville Marriner
Neville Marriner
Sir Neville Marriner is an English conductor and violinist.-Biography:Marriner was born in Lincoln and studied at the Royal College of Music and the Paris Conservatoire. He played the violin in the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Martin String Quartet and London Symphony Orchestra, playing with the...
, and Helmuth Rilling
Helmuth Rilling
Helmuth Rilling is an internationally known German choral conductor, founder of the Gächinger Kantorei , the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart , the Oregon Bach Festival , the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and other Bach Academies worldwide, and the "Festival Ensemble Stuttgart"...
.
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, and 2010
- Five countries in Africa in 2002
- New Zealand and Australia in 2005.
- Istanbul with the Yale Alumni Chorus in 2011
External links
- Yale Glee Club official web site
- Yale 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.