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

3. Singing in Student Organizations, 1800–1850

3 Singing in Student Organizations, 1800–­1850 Singing Influences Ameri­ can mu­ si­ cal directions began shifting prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Ameri­ can colleges played a key role in this shift through the performance and imitation of artistic music as well as the casual or popu­ lar music of the day that grew from pub­lic interests and the influence of new immigrants . While the singing schools largely promoted secular diversion, the contents of their singing remained sacred. The mu­ si­ cal societies of the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century represented the “urban rivals of the singing-­ schools.” These societies organized in the cities as choral or instrumental groups typically under the leadership of professional immigrant musicians and studied the “new, scientific” music of Europe. They generally cultivated an improved taste and performance of sacred music and exposure to more general works of eminent European composers.1 German composers and musicians made the greatest impact on music of the romantic period. This influence shaped college singing and mu­ si­ cal societies as well. Ameri­ cans changed their allegiance in mu­ si­ cal tastes from England to Germany in the early part of the century. Those Ameri­ can musicians affluent enough to study music traveled to Europe, primarily Germany. The aim of romantic music, as explained by the editor of Dwight’s Journal of Music, served to remedy the defect of materialistic society. “Familiarizing men with the beautiful and the infinite” became the credo of cultivated tradition. German music, more than any other, achieved this desired goal. Ameri­ cans began to slough off Singing in Student Organizations, 1800–1850 51 the folk-­ style singing traditions of England and move toward a more refined, artistic European music with a German focus. Ameri­ cans welcomed German musicians, and many Germans served as music teachers in America. Most every musician during this period felt the impact of Beethoven, Handel, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Wagner.2 Thus, many of the college music society names reflected the names of these German composers. Cultivated and Vernacular Traditions The historian H. Wiley Hitchcock described a divergent trend in Ameri­ can music during the nineteenth century. No clear distinction existed in the early part of the century as similar tunes contributed to popu­ lar music and broadside ballads as well as the more refined occasions of church singing. As the century progressed and growth expanded toward the west, however, the Ameri­ can pub­ lic pursued the refined classical repertoire on the one hand and popu­ lar music on the other. Cultivated music prospered in the established urban areas of Boston and New York, while vernacular music predominated in the rural settlements. Hitchcock expressed this dichotomy as the cultivated versus the vernacular tradition . The cultivated tradition constituted “a body of music that America had to cultivate consciously, music faintly exotic, to be approached with some effort , and to be appreciated for its edification—its moral, spiritual, or aesthetic values.” The vernacular tradition involved “a body of music more plebeian, native , not approached self-­ consciously but simply grown into as one grows into one’s vernacular tongue, music understood and appreciated simply for its utilitarian or entertainment value.” He further described vernacular music as “essentially unconcerned with artistic or philosophical idealism; a music based on established or newly diffused Ameri­ can raw materials; a ‘popu­ lar music’ in the larger sense, broadly based, widespread, naïve, and unself-­ conscious; and a music whose ‘success’ was measured not by abstract aesthetic standards but by those of the marketplace.” Irving Lowens gave his own terms as “elite art” and “mass art.”3 College singing during the first half of the nineteenth century experienced growth in both the cultivated and vernacular. Most colleges had some version of a singing or music society. These societies and other music groups also contributed to official college functions. Students enjoyed the refined tastes of cultivated music, as made obvious by the societies, but they also had plenty of room 52 Chapter 3 for the more vernacular (but perhaps no less creative) secular songs, ballads, and poetical verse as well as the spontaneous compositions of undergraduate life. This was most apparent in the popu­ lar glee clubs that of­ ten formed as subgroups of the societies. The literary societies and emerging fraternities utilized singing as well. Even the most casual associations of students incorporated singing for assorted purposes. However, the most...