When Colleges Sang: The Story of Singing in American College Life

Epilogue: A Rich Early History of College Singing

Epilogue A Rich Early History of College Singing While singing always existed on Ameri­ can college campuses and reflected the singing habits of Ameri­ can society, students made singing a unique ­ component of undergraduate life. From the influence of psalm singing, as evidenced by Samuel Sewall, to the confirmation of secular ballads in students’ commonplace books, students sang from the beginning of Ameri­ can higher education. Instruments in the homes of Puritan Harvard graduates as well as Puritan religious leaders showed that Puritans enjoyed singing and related entertainments beyond their presumed dreary stereotype. College presidents also saw the value of singing from an institutional perspective. They used song to build an early religious regimen of chapel attendance. They also used music to enhance formal college ceremonies. The growing complexity of eighteenth-­ century America led to further developments in college singing. The focus on improving the quality of sacred singing promoted an even greater diversity of secular singing. The secular diversions of singing schools in the early century led to the more sophisticated art music of the later period. The popu­ larity of odes influenced commencement celebrations. The patriotism of the Ameri­ can Revolution popu­ larized patriotic ballads and independence concerts on college campuses. Literary societies enjoyed elaborate mu­ si­ cal plays in addition to their well-­ known debates. The secret society and fraternity movement adopted many Masonic rites and singing rituals. The greatest impact on college singing during the nineteenth century came 238 Epilogue from German influences. America’s search for artistic music led to Europe and primarily to German composers. The interest in German music spawned college music societies. German immigrant singing groups increased the interest in the more casual part singing and glee club organizations. Ameri­ can colleges adopted rituals and songs of German colleges and burschen life. Toward the latter nineteenth century, advances in the publishing industry extended the reach of information, in­clud­ing the first efforts at college song collections . The mystique surrounding faculty, students, and alumni piqued the curiosity of the general public, or the outsiders. Perhaps this development initiated the pub­ lic fascination with college life that John Thelin observed in his A History of Ameri­ can Higher Education. Thelin noted that the public’s interest in college life grew progressively between 1890 and 1910 and continued for the next several decades. By the 1920s colleges and publishing companies offered an endless supply of college songs and college song anthologies that captured the essence of college life. Glee clubs, bands, and vari­ ous other student music organizations proliferated. It was the “golden age of campus music groups.”1 Music and singing existed as a perpetual influence in Ameri­ can higher education . While some forms matured in sophistication, other casual trends came and went. Still others remained an ingrained part of informal college student life and formal institutional observances. The inspiration for music and singing originated and evolved from many diverse influences. Colleges and college students adapted music and songs of the broader society to suit both formal and informal workings of college life. In so doing, Ameri­can higher education created its own unique customs. Colleges and their students enriched the diversity of song by fostering trends of both cultivated and vernacular music traditions that blended the sacred and secular, the formal and informal songs of the campus. His­ tori­ cally black colleges emerged with their own unique traditions. Fisk University andtheHamptonInstituteproducedcollectionsof songs in the 1870s. Fisk’s Jubilee Singers earned worldwide renown. In the early years (before attaining professional status), their performances served as fund-­ raising vehicles for the college. While their extensive repertoire included ballads, operas, choruses , and hymns, the plantation and spiritual songs brought them the most fame and captivated the general public. As a writer noted in the New York Evangelist, “every thing becomes new under the charm of their un-­English voices.” They amassed $40,000 for the college during their initial efforts.2 Female colleges developed their own special mu­ si­ cal histories as well. Many of them produced collections of college songs. Vassar and Wellesley led the Epilogue 239 way in the late 1880s. Elmira and Bryn Mawr followed with their own song­ books around the turn of the century. Even as some traditionally male colleges became coeducational, institutions, of­ ten by design, maintained a separate physical presence as well as separate collections of songs. The publishing proliferation of college songs during the first...