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—glees—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.

This article is about musical/choir group. For other uses, see Glee club (disambiguation).
The Miami University Glee Club in 1907

Glee in Great Britain (from 1603) or the United Kingdom (from 1707) does not refer to the mood of the music or of its singers, but to a specific form of English part song popular between 1650 and 1900, the glee. 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in 1787.[1] Glee clubs were very popular in Britain from then until the mid-1850s but by then they were gradually being superseded by larger choral societies. But by the mid-20th century, proper glee clubs were no longer common.

The term remains in contemporary use, however, 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

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

  • 1915: University of Notre Dame Glee Club (Oldest Glee Club at a Catholic University)
  • 1927: University of Pittsburgh Women's Choral Ensemble

The oldest non-collegiate glee club in the United States is the Mendelssohn Glee Club, founded in 1866.[20]

See also

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 2009-10-15.
  3. (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20140506102246/http://www.wesleyan.edu/communications/images/magazine_assets/10-2_musicalcampus.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-06. Retrieved 2014-09-29. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. "The University of Pennsylvania Archives".
  5. "Amherst Glee Club Website". Archived from the original on 2011-06-28.
  6. "Glee Club History". Archived from the original on 2009-01-07. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
  7. Bruce, Philip Alexander (1921). History of the University of Virginia, 1818-1919. IV. MacMillan. pp. 127–128, 841.
  8. "RU Glee Club History". Archived from the original on 2010-07-17. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  9. "Official webpage of The Ohio State University Men's Glee Club". 2015-01-27. Retrieved 2015-02-04.
  10. "Choral Ensembles". Mount Holyoke College. 2016-11-15. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  11. "Varsity Men's Glee Club | Music at Illinois". music.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  12. "Penn State Glee Club history". Retrieved 2015-08-08.
  13. College, Wabash. "Academics". Wabash College. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
  14. "University of Michigan Women's Glee Club". Retrieved 2018-02-28.
  15. "Purdue Varsity Glee Club History". Retrieved 2017-02-15.
  16. "The History of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Singing Cadets". Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  17. "About the Georgia Tech Glee Club". Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  18. "Wheaton College Men's Glee Club". Archived from the original on 2016-11-14. Retrieved 2016-11-14.
  19. "The Official Morehouse Glee Club Website". Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  20. New York Library for the Performing Arts. "Mendelssohn Club Papers" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-02-25.

Further reading
  • J. Lloyd Winstead (2013) When Colleges Sang: The Story of Singing in American College Life University of Alabama Press ISBN 978-0-8173-1790-4
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