glee

A glee is a part song, usually scored for at least three solo voices, and normally sung unaccompanied. Glees were traditionally drinking songs and songs that expressed idyllic or fraternal sentiments. Although many glees were originally written to be sung in men's singing clubs, such as the Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club, or the London Glee Club, they often included soprano parts—sung by boys in the earliest years, but later sung by women. Glees differ from traditional college songs or fight songs, although those can have some of the same characteristics as glees.

Form

The standard glee is a three or four part a cappella song sung with one voice on each part. It has at least two movements. The parts were originally treble, tenor and bass, although later versions were often written for contralto, tenor and bass, or soprano, tenor, tenor and bass. Later glees may have instrumental accompaniment.

History

The glee developed from the English madrigal in mid-17th century England. The first song to be described as a glee was Turn, Amaryllis, to thy Swain by Thomas Brewer. Glees continued to be produced during the rest of the 17th century and the early 18th century by such composers as Henry Purcell and Thomas Arne. However the heyday of the glee was in the years between 1750 and 1850. This was the era during which the most notable composers of glees were producing their best work and during which glee clubs were at their most active. As the 19th century progressed, musical tastes changed and, after 1850, choral groups began to replace glee clubs as the main outlet for popular musical expression.

Glee Clubs

The first of the great Georgian clubs to popularize the glee was the Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club of London, founded in 1762. Glee singing societies became wildly popular in the 18th century, and remained so throughout the 19th century. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, glee singing clubs gave way to choral societies, with a handful of exceptions. As communal choruses supplanted the earlier clubs, the term glee club was increasingly used to describe collegiate ensembles performing glees and other light music in informal circumstances. As glee clubs began more to resemble standard choirs during the 20th century, the tradition of singing glees faded.

Examples

A notable example of a glee is Glorious Apollo, a composition by Samuel Webbe Sr., written in 1787 as a theme song for the newly founded London Glee Club. Webbe's glee took root with the Harvard Glee Club, the oldest such group in America, which still sings this song. Webbe wrote the text as well as the music, and in it he faithfully traced the club's history; for the first couple of years, the meetings circulated among members' homes. This is reflected in the second line, which notes that the club was "wand'ring to find a temple for his praise." It finally found its "temple" when the club's meetings moved to the Newcastle Coffee House. Webbe's references to the gods of the Greek pantheon were part and parcel of the Georgian gentlemen's singing clubs' identification with the learning and leisure activities of the classical world. Webbe structured the poem so that the first two couplets of each verse were sung by solo voices, with all the members joining in at the refrain, "Thus then combining...".

Glorious Apollo

Glorious Apollo from on high beheld us,

Wand'ring to find a temple for his praise.

Sent Polyhymnia hither to shield us,

While we ourselves such a structure might raise.

Thus then combining, hands and hearts joining,

Sing we in harmony Apollo's praise.

Here ev'ry gen'rous sentiment awaking,

Music inspiring unity and joy.

Each social pleasure giving and partaking,

Glee and good humour our hours employ.

Thus then combining, hands and hearts joining,

Long may continue our unity and joy.

Another of Webbe's glees is Discord!, whose first movement is based on a passage from The Illiad and whose second is based on a verse which, it is thought, he composed himself.

	Discord! Dire Sister Performed by dwsChorale (2.6 Mb)
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Discord!

Discord! Dire sister of the slaughtering power,

Small at her birth, but rising every hour,

While scarce the skies her horrid head can bound,

She stalks on earth, and shakes the world around.

But lovely Peace in angel form

Descending quells the rising storm.

Soft ease and sweet content shall reign

And Discord never rise again.

Notable Composers

• Thomas Brewer
• Henry Purcell
• Thomas Arne
• Samuel Webbe Sr.
• John Stafford Smith
• R. J. S. Stevens
• John Wall Callcott
• Reginald Spofforth
• John Danby
• William Paxton

See also

• Choir
• Choral Music
• Glee Club
• List of collegiate glee clubs
•  "Glee". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 

References

• A Concise History of Music by H. G. Bonavia Hunt. George Bell and Sons: London, 1878
• Musical Groundwork by Frederick J. Crowest. Frederick Warne and Company: London, 1890