Virginia Glee Club

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Virginia Glee Club

---

Img_capt = The Virginia Glee Club in 1893. Courtesy, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library.
Landscape = yes
Background = classical_ensemble
Origin = Charlottesville, Virginia
Genre = Classical
Years_active = 1871–1905,1915–present
URL = http://www.virginiagleeclub.org/

The Virginia Glee Club is a critically acclaimed men's chorus based at the University of Virginia. It performs both traditional and contemporary vocal works, typically in TTBB arrangements. Founded in 1871, the Glee Club is the University's oldest musical organization and one of the oldest all-male collegiate vocal ensembles in the United States. It is currently conducted by Frank Albinder.

History

The Virginia Glee Club was founded in 1871 as the Cabell House Men. In the 1893-1894 session of the University, the Glee Club was combined with other extant student musical groups to form the Glee, Banjo, and Mandolin Club, a more permanent organization, with University Chapel organist Harrison Randolph as the director.cite book
last=Bruce
first=Philip Alexander
authorlink=Philip Alexander Bruce
title=History of the University of Virginia, 1818-1919, Volume IV
publisher=MacMillan
date=1921
pages=127-128,841
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ns0zAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA127&dq=%22cabell+house%22+virginia#PPA127,M1] cite audio |title=A Shadow's on the Sundial (liner notes) |people=University of Virginia Glee Club |medium=Record album |year=1972] . The group appears to have existed in this form until around 1905, when its status becomes unclear. Though contemporary letters indicate that the Glee Club was in existence in the fall of 1905,cite web
url=http://repo.lib.virginia.edu:18080/fedora/get/uva-lib:422010/uva-lib-bdef:100/getFullView
title=A Guide to the Gregory and Whitmore Family Papers, 1990-1993
work=Gregory and Whitmore Family Papers, 1990-1993, Accession # 10754-c
date=1905-10-29
accessdate=2008-03-25] university historian Philip Alexander Bruce indicates it disbanded in this year. The group reformed in 1910-1911 but does not appear to have existed on a continuing basis until January 1915, when it was reorganized under the leadership of Professor Alfred Lawrence (A.L.) Hall-Quest (professor of educational psychology); Hall-Quest is said to have modeled the group after the glee club of his alma mater, Princeton University .cite book
last=Bruce
first=Philip Alexander
authorlink=Philip Alexander Bruce
title=History of the University of Virginia, 1818-1919, Volume V
publisher=MacMillan
date=1921
pages=209,288-289
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=vs0zAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA289&dq=%22university+of+virginia%22+%22glee+club%22#PPA289,M1] cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=PN8MAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=alfred+%22hall+quest%22+virginia&source=web&ots=YQAHxQPeA6&sig=YAWN8M_TqxpjGLlgEAhPbdlhICI&hl=en#PPA110,M1 |title=A Thousand American Men of Mark To-Day |publisher=American Men of Mark |location=Chicago |year=1917 |pages=110-111] (At least one photograph of the Glee Club, dated January 1914, is known to exist in the period 1911-1915, so the exact dates of the group's hiatus are uncertain.)cite web |last=Holsinger |first=Rufus |url=http://mcgregor.lib.virginia.edu/Holsinger/FMPro?-db=holsinger&-format=detail.html&-lay=list&Keyword=glee%20club&%5bsearch%5d=do%20not%20care&-max=10&-recid=37672&-find= |title=Glee Club University of Virginia |date=1914-01-07 ]

Since 1915, the Virginia Glee Club has been in continuous existence as a men's chorus at the University. From the 1920s into the 1980s, the Glee Club enjoyed an association with the McIntire Department of Music through a series of directors who were members of the music faculty, including Arthur Fickenscher, Harry Rogers Pratt, Stephen Tuttle, Donald Macinnis, and Donald Loach. The group was viewed as an educational resource that enhanced other offerings; a course catalog from the 1920s offered students in the Composition class the opportunity to have their works performed by the Glee Club.cite book
url=http://repo.lib.virginia.edu:18080/fedora/get/uva-lib:117671/uva-lib-bdef:100/getFullView/ |title=University of Virginia Record |publisher=University of Virginia |location=Charlottesville |pages=31 |year=1924]

In 1943, the Glee Club worked with composer in residence Randall Thompson when director Stephen Tuttle commissioned Thompson to write "The Testament of Freedom", a setting of Thomas Jefferson's words about liberty, for the Virginia Glee Club. In the later years of Tuttle's tenure, the Glee Club recorded an album with RCA of traditional university songs, accompanied by the University of Virginia Band.

In 1953, members of the Glee Club formed the Virginia Gentlemen, the oldest "a cappella" group at UVA, which originated as a performing subset of the Glee Clubcite journal
last=Daly
first=Kim
title=Facing the Music
journal=The Declaration
volume=26
issue=17
url=http://www.the-declaration.com/1998/10_29/features/spotlight.shtml
date=1998-10-29
accessdate=2007-08-22] and became an independent organization in the 1980s.

In 1971, the Z Society gave the Glee Club its Organization Award in recognition of its concerts, the recording of its album "A Shadow's on the Sundial", and its pending first European tour.cite book
url=http://repo.lib.virginia.edu:18080/fedora/get/uva-lib:178665/uva-lib-bdef:100/getFullView/
title=Mr. Jefferson's University
last=Dabney
first=Virginius
publisher=University Press of Virginia
date=1981
location=Charlottesville
pages=465 ] The group toured Europe in 1972, funding the trip with individual and community contributions, as well as profits from their 1972 recording, "A Shadow's on the Sundial."cite news |url=http://hatbox.lib.virginia.edu/text_old/cavdaily/cavdaily_19720229.xml |title=Singers Invade Europe at Spring Break |last=Kyle |first=Patti |date=1972-02-29 |work=Cavalier Daily "Note": The XML parser for this archived record of the 1972 Cavalier Daily is broken, but the original article can be viewed by viewing source on the referenced URL.]

In 1989, the Virginia Glee Club became a Contracted Independent Organization when the Music Department moved unilaterally to combine it with the Virginia Women's Chorus into a mixed choir, which would have eliminated the Glee Club's independent identity.cite journal
last=Dakake
first=Brad
title=Tradition in Treble: A Brief History of Glee Club
journal=The Declaration
url=http://www.the-declaration.com/2000/02_17/features/gleeclub.shtml
date=2000-02-17
volume=28
issue=3]

Notable alumni

Over the years the group has counted various famous UVA students among its alumni, including Woodrow Wilson, who joined the Glee Club while attending the University of Virginia School of Law,cite journal | last =Hale | first =William Bayard | title =Woodrow Wilson--A Biography: Second Article--At College, Preparing for Public Life | journal=The World's Work | volume = 23 | date =November 1911 to April 1912 | pages =74 | url =http://books.google.com/books?id=Vv--PfedzLAC&pg=PA74&dq=%22university+of+virginia%22+%22glee+club%22#PPA74,M1] and Edward A. Craighill, author of The Good Old Song.cite web
title=University of Virginia Glee Club Photo, February 11, 1893
url=http://mcgregor.lib.virginia.edu/prints/FMPro?-db=uvaprints.fp5&-format=details.html&-lay=main&-op=cn&Keyword=glee%20club&-max=20&-recid=40510&-find=
accessdate=2008-02-05
date=1893-02-11]

List of Directors

* Harrison Randolph (ca. 1893)
* A.L. Hall-Quest (ca. 1915-1918)cite book |url=http://repo.lib.virginia.edu:18080/fedora/get/uva-lib:328252/uva-lib-bdef:100/getFullView |title=Board of Visitors Minutes for May 15, 1918 |year=1918] Professor Hall-Quest resigned from the University on or around May 1918, presumably terminating his directorship.]
* Arthur Fickenscher (ca. 1920 - 1933), head of the Music Department cite book
url=http://repo.lib.virginia.edu:18080/fedora/get/uva-lib:117671/uva-lib-bdef:105/getPageTurner?behav=getImageBrowse&pageNum=30
title=University of Virginia Record: Department of the College
pages=32
date=1924-1925
accessdate=2008-03-20]
* Harry Rogers Pratt (1933 - 1940s)cite web
title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Recoleta
last=Stokes
first=Virginia
coauthors=Lloyd Thomas Smith Jr, James R Boyd, Margaret O'Brien, Marc Wagner
url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Charlottesville/NR_Charlottesville_Recoleta_104-5086.pdf
format=PDF
date=
accessdate=2007-08-22]
* Stephen Tuttle (ca. 1940s - 1951)
* Donald MacInnis/David Davis (1951-1964)
* Donald Loach (1964 - 1989)
* Michael Butterman (1989-1991)
* John R. Liepold (1991-1996)
* J. Craig Fennell ("interim") (1996)
* Bruce Tammen (1996-2001)
* Burke Morton ("interim") (2001-2002)
* Michael Slon (2002-2003)
* Frank Albinder (2003-present)cite web
url=http://www.student.virginia.edu/~glee/history.php
title=A Brief History of the Club
accessdate=2007-08-22]

The Glee Club today

Since its separation from the McIntire Department of Music in 1989, the Glee Club has existed as a Contracted Independent Organization at the University. The group currently receives no funds from the University, and is entirely student managed.

The Glee Club rehearses and performs the majority of its home concerts at Old Cabell Hall on the University of Virginia Lawn, where it recorded its 1947 record "Songs of the University of Virginia". The Glee Club's concert schedule typically includes a mix of home and road concerts, mostly notably including its annual Christmas Concerts, which have been produced each year since 1940. The Glee Club also gives its Finals concert the night before University Commencement, during which graduating members are bid farewell. The Glee Club typically collaborates on the road with such women's choirs as the Wellesley College Choir.

The Glee Club was recently recognized with a Jefferson Trust grant "to research, perform and record a collection of songs that reflect the historical significance of the University's choral music legacy," under a project called Songs of Virginia.cite web |url=http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=4758 |title=Third Annual Jefferson Trust Grants Provide $470,000 to University of Virginia, Exceeding $1 Million in Cumulative Gifts |work=UVA Today |date=2008-04-04 |accessdate=2008-06-30]

The Glee Club terms itself a "Fraternity of Talent". In its own words, the Glee Club is "committed to performing at a professional level, promoting fellowship, preserving longstanding tradition, and upholding the ideals of student self-governance." Members are said to adhere to the lifestyle set forth in the motto "Virginia Messengers of Harmony, Love, and Brotherhood".

Commissioned works

One of the high points of the group's early years was its 1943 premier performance of The Testament of Freedom by American composer Randall Thompson, then a Virginia professor. The Glee Club commissioned Thompson to write the piece in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of University founder Thomas Jefferson.cite book
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=-U6dLtsEoaoC&pg=PA327&lpg=PA327&dq=%22virginia+glee+club%22+%22testament+of+freedom%22&source=web&ots=h0CDyndMNE&sig=3FvuOzTeFwWXgn18rkdyge8ZPAI&hl=en
title=From Psalm to Symphony: A History of Music in New England
last=Tawa
first=Nicholas E.
year=2001
publisher=Northeastern University Press
location=Boston
pages=327]

The group continues to commission choral works for men's voices; recent examples include "Young T.J.", commissioned by the Glee Club from composer Neely Bruce in honor of Thomas Jefferson's 250th birthday.cite web
title=About Neely Bruce
url=http://neelybrucemusic.com/about-neely.htm
accessdate=2007-08-06] The piece was performed at various celebrations of Jefferson's 250th birthday on April 131993, including a special performance for President Bill Clinton.cite web
last=Clinton
first=William Jefferson
authorlink=Bill Clinton
title=Remarks by the President at Ceremony Honoring 250th Anniversary of Birth of Thomas Jefferson
url=http://www.clintonfoundation.org/legacy/041393-speech-by-president-at-jefferson-memorial.htm
date=1993-04-13
accessdate=2007-08-06]

Other recent commissions include "The Jabberwocky", a 2006 setting of the Lewis Carroll poem by Judith Shatin.cite journal
last=Ford
first=Jane
title=Shatin makes musical sense of Jabberwocky
journal=Inside UVA
volume=36
issue=6
url=http://www.virginia.edu/insideuva/2006/06/shatin.html
date=2006-04-13
accessdate=2007-08-16]

The Glee Club most recently was part of a group to commission a work by Lee Hoiby called "Private First Class Jesse Givens." The lyrics are the text of the last letter sent home by PFC Givens after he died in Iraq in March, 2003.cite web
url=http://www.eamdllc.com/story.cfm?story_id=113
title=Lee Hoiby Composer-in-Residence at Austin Peay University
date=2007-03]

Discography

A list of [http://www.student.virginia.edu/~glee/merchandise.php currently available albums] is available on the Glee Club web site.

*"Songs of the University of Virginia" (1947? 1951?)cite web|last=Thompson |first=Ralph|title= Glee Club|date=1947|url=http://mcgregor.lib.virginia.edu/Prints/FMPro?-db=uvaprints.fp5&-format=details.html&-lay=main&-op=cn&Keyword=%22glee%20club%22&-max=20&-recid=40532&-find= ] citation
title=Virginia U. Band and Glee Club Put Songs 'On the Record'
date=1951-04-22
year=1951
newspaper=Washington Post
pages=L7
accessdate=2008-01-27] (RCA Victor 81952, LP)
* "For unto us a Child is Born - Christmas 1967" (1967), Donald Loach, directorcite web
url=http://anglicanmusic.freeservers.com/Recrd-30.htm
title=Recording Listing
accessdate=2008-03-25]
*"A Shadow's On The Sundial" (1972)citation
last=Staff Writer
title=A Shadow's on the Sundial
url=http://scripta.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-textwg/cavdaily.pl?str=glee%20club&offset=49302434&fileid=19720225
newspaper=Cavalier Daily
year=1972
date=1972-02-25
accessdate=2007-08-22]
*"50th Annual Christmas Concert" (1991) (cassette)
*"51st Annual Christmas Concert" (1992) (cassette)
*"Music for a Noble Acoustic" (1994) (cassette)
*" [http://www.student.virginia.edu/~glee/merchandise/notesfromthepath/ Notes from the Path] " (1996)
*" [http://www.student.virginia.edu/~glee/merchandise/brotherssingon/ Brothers, Sing On!] " (1998)
*" [http://www.student.virginia.edu/~glee/merchandise/tourdefrance/ Tour de France] " (2000)
*" [http://www.student.virginia.edu/~glee/merchandise/recordings.php?cd=aseasonwith A Season with the Virginia Glee Club] " (2002)

External links

[http://www.virginiagleeclub.org/ The Official Virginia Glee Club Homepage]

References