Glee (music)

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A glee is a part song, usually scored for at least three solo voices, and normally sung unaccompanied. Although 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. 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. Glees were traditionally drinking songs and songs that expressed idyllic or fraternal sentiments.

As Glee Clubs began to resemble more standard choirs in the 20th century, the tradition of singing glees has faded, and they are easily parodied as "old-fashioned."

Glees should not be confused with traditional college songs or fight songs, although those can have some of the same characteristics as glees.

[edit] Example of a glee

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.