“In Burst of Fresh Song”

Abstract

Between 1920 and 1928, William Churchill Hammond’s Christmas Caroling Choir at Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, not only helped to reinstate the musical celebration of Christmas after Puritan beliefs had precluded it in New England, but also provided one of the first experiences for American women to tour, as professional performing musicians would, and premiere new music throughout the northeastern United States. A subset of the Glee Club at the college, the Caroling Choir performed carol concerts each Christmas jointly with Hammond’s choir at the Second Congregational Church in Holyoke. Together with his brother-in-law, Edward Bliss Reed, Hammond collected Christmas Carols for more than thirty-five years. The carols were arranged, published, and circulated by the Carol Society in New Haven, Connecticut. Through his leadership as Director of Music at the college during 1899–1937 and at the Second Congregational Church, Hammond exposed female college students, parishioners, and foreign-born mill workers within the community to musical masterworks and he fostered appreciation for art music in a location where no professional orchestra existed at the time. Hammond’s musical and technical expertise, zeal for quality music, and outlook on music as a unifying force among people intensified the role that music played throughout the college and likely propelled the establishment of a Music Major in 1935.