Cornell Glee Club
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The Cornell University Glee Club (CUGC) is the oldest student organization at Cornell University, having been organized shortly after the first students arrived on campus in 1868. The CUGC is a sixty-member chorus for male voices, with repertoire including classical, folk, 20th century music, and traditional Cornell songs.

Achievements

• First American collegiate choral ensemble to tour Europe by traveling to England in 1895 with Cornell's crew. ^[1]
• First American collegiate ensemble to tour the Soviet Union, traveled to the Soviet Union and England from December 1960 to January 1961.^[1]
• Performed for national television and radio on such networks as Television Moscow, BBC, Educational Television Network, Radio Leningrad, Frankfurt Radio Network, Television Singapura, PBS, NBC, and others. Notable appearances include:^[1]
  • The Kate Smith TV Hour (1951)^[2]
  • The Perry Como Show (1954)^[2]
  • Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion (1997)^[3]
  • The Price is Right (1999)^[4]
• Frequent domestic and international tours have traveled to over thirty-five states and nearly thirty countries across four continents.
  • First group to bring the Franz Biebl Ave Maria from Germany to the United States after meeting the composer during a recording session on the 1970 tour of Germany.^[5]
  • Three month tour through East Asia in 1966 on an all-expense paid tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department.^[6]
  • 1989 tour of China was the focus of the PBS documentary Geographical Fugue.^[7]
• First use of "Big Red" to refer to Cornell University dates to the song The Big Red Team, originally performed by the CUGC in 1905.
• First published history of an American collegiate choral ensemble, Songs From the Hill: A History of the Cornell University Glee Club by Michael Slon, Class of 1992, was published in 1998.

Directors

• 1889 - 1921: Hollis Ellsworth Dann
• 1921 - 1942: Eric Sydney Dudley
• 1942 - 1945: John Marinus Kuypers
• 1945 - 1946: Paul John Weaver
• 1946 - 1957: Thomas Brodhead Tracy, Class of 1931
• 1957 - 1995: Thomas Andrew Sokol
• 1995 - present: Scott Arthur Tucker

A cappella subsets

• Cayuga's Waiters (1949-present)
  • disassociated from Glee Club in 1956
• Sherwoods (1956-1973)
  • removed from Glee Club in 1958
  • alumni still perform annually at Reunions weekend
• Glee Club Eight / Glee Club Octaves (1958-1966)
• Hangovers (1968-present)
  • continue to tour and perform within the CUGC and separately as the official a cappella subset
• Leftovers (1971-1972)
  • merged with Hangovers in 1972

Sherwoods

First appearing at the Glee Club's 1956 fall concert, The Sherwoods gained popularity quickly and by 1958, they followed the pattern set by Cayuga's Waiters and parted ways with the Glee Club due to the time demands of both groups. The Sherwoods toured extensively, traveling to Hawaii, the Far East, Bermuda, the Virgin Islands, and Jamaica. They commonly wore dark green jackets and ties for performances. Their popularity slowly faded and the group stopped auditioning new members sometime around 1973. The alumni still actively perform and can be seen on campus every June at Reunions Weekend. The Sherwoods released seven albums during their tenure; more recently, a compilation CD titled Try to Remember - The Reunion Album was released containing the Sherwoods greatest hits from the previous albums.

Noted folksinger Harry Chapin joined the Sherwoods twice, dropping out of Cornell University shortly after each time. He never did receive his degree.

International tours

The CUGC has performed as an ensemble in twenty-five different countries.

• 1895 - England
• 1954 - Mexico
• 1960-1961 - Soviet Union and England
• 1963 - England
• 1966 - East Asia: Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Okinawa (now part of Japan), South Korea, and Japan
• 1970 - Germany
• 1972 - Eastern Europe: Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia
• 1979 - England
• 1982 - England
• 1989 - Singapore, China, and Hong Kong
• 1992 - France, Spain, and Switzerland
• 1993 - Great Lakes with visit to Toronto, Canada
• 2001 - Venezuela
• 2004 - Brazil
• 2008 - China (with the Cornell University Chorus)

Miscellaneous

This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The seal

Adopted as the official emblem of the Glee Club by Thomas A. Sokol shortly after he became director, the CUGC seal features the head of Apollo, the Greek god of music and poetry. It also recalls the well-known glee Glorious Apollo by Samuel Webbe.

Quotes

"They are marvelous - perfectly wonderful."

Eugene Ormandy, speaking of the chorus, after conducting a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by the Glee Club, Chorus, and Philadelphia Orchestra on October 9th and 10th, 1962.

"This is the most exciting moment in my eight years as Governor of New York."

Nelson Rockefeller after hearing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony performed by the Cornell Glee Club, Chorus, and the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Eugene Ormandy for the opening of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, August 4, 1966.

Notable CUGC alumni

See also: List of Cornell University people

• Robert Henry Treman - Class of 1878 - first of the Treman family to attend Cornell; Cornell University trustee for forty-six years, one of the longest terms in its history; philanthropist; gave land for Treman State Parks; second oldest member of the Cornell University Athletic Hall of Fame; president of Cornell University Alumni Association
• Louis Agassiz Fuertes - Class of 1897 - ornithologist and painter
• Frederick Fuller Russell - Class of 1891 - credited with perfecting and employing the first typhoid vaccination on a large scale as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Medical Corps
• Neal Dow Becker - Class of 1905 - Chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees (1947-1953)
• John Wellborn Root, Jr. - Class of 1909 - architect of Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Daily News buildings, among others
• Robert Alexander Anderson - Class of 1916 - prolific Hawaiian composer with nearly 200 songs to his credit, including Lovely Hula Hands, Coconut Island, and the popular Hawaiian Christmas song, Mele Kalikimaka
• Ivan Dresser - Class of 1919 - gold medalist in the 3000 meter track & field event at the 1920 Olympic Games
• John Shively Knight - Class of 1918 (did not graduate) - newspaper magnate whose papers garnered twenty-six Pulitzer Prizes during his tenure as chairman of what is now Knight Ridder; namesake of John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines at Cornell University
• Francis Phillip Wupperman - Class of 1912 (did not graduate) - changed name to Frank Morgan; film and Broadway actor; played the Wizard in the film The Wizard of Oz
• Robert Burns Aird - Class of 1926 - president of Deep Springs College; founder of UC San Francisco Department of Neurology
• Julian Haynes Steward - Class of 1925 - anthropologist; developed scientific theory of cultural evolution
• Allan Hosie Treman - Class of 1921 - lawyer and Cornell University trustee
• Hugh Charles Troy, Jr. - Class of 1926 (did not graduate) - painter and prankster
• Austin H. Kiplinger - Class of 1939 - former chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees; head of the Kiplinger publishing dynasty for 30 years
• Stephen John Hadley - Class of 1969 - U.S. national security advisor
• Knight A. Kiplinger - Class of 1969 - current Editor-in-Chief of Kiplinger's Personal Finance; Trustee of the Kiplinger Foundation
• Alan Lee Keyes - Class of 1972 (transferred to Harvard University) - politician, diplomat, and U.S. presidential candidate

Premieres

The Glee Club has given the world and American premieres of many works for male chorus, written by a variety of notable composers.

World premieres include works by:

• Maximilian Albrecht: Haec est Domus Domini, Exsultet Sanctus (1962), Requiem (1963)
• Karel Husa: Festive Ode (1964), The Apotheosis of this Earth (1972, revised 1990)
• Ned Rorem: Laudemus Tempus Actum (1964)
• David Conte: Canticle (1982), Requiem Triptych (1983), Carmina Juventutis (1993)
• Steven Stucky: To Musick (2000)
• Ernani Aguiar: Missa Brevis III (2004)
• Augusta Read Thomas: The Rewaking (2005)

American premieres include works by:

• Carl Orff: Comoedeia de Christi Resurrectione (1962)
• Bohuslav Martinů: Prophecy of Isaiah (1968), Field Mass (1970)
• Anton Reicha: Te Deum (1974), Die Harmonie der Sphären (1974)

See also

• Cornell Hangovers
• Cornell Sherwoods
• Cornell University
• Glee Club
• Choral Music
• List of Cornell Songs

External links

• Cornell University Glee Club
• The Cornell Hangovers
• Cornell University Music Department
• Cornell University

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Slon, Michael (1998). Songs From the Hill. Cornell University Glee Club. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Guide to the Cornell University Glee Club Records, 1890-1986" (Correspondence, programs, scrapbooks, photographs, notebooks, recordings, miscellany.). Collection Number: 37-6-2399. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library (1890-1986). Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
3. ^ Prairie Home Companion Episode Guide
4. ^ View the Glee Club on The Price is Right
5. ^ Program notes by Dr. Wilbur Skeels detailing the Ave Maria's history
6. ^ "1966 Cornell Glee Club alumni celebrate historic Asian tour with Homecoming performance"
7. ^ Link to the bio of writer/producer/director Dan Booth