MUSIC IN REVIEW

Abstract

2 0 4 Y M U S I C I N R E V I E W T I M O T H Y Y O U N G Music and Yale have always had a melodious connection. From the college’s earliest days, hymns and psalms sung in harmony (the type championed by Jonathan Edwards) were part of the ambiance of the New Haven campus. The nineteenth century brought the exuberance of the glee, banjo, and mandolin clubs that flourished in the Ivy League. By the turn of the twentieth, smaller varsity singing groups had established their longevity in the Ivy League, appearing at social functions, and, in New Haven, at the old Temple Bar. This brand of undergraduate musical expression gained wide recognition as ‘‘The Whi√enpoof Song’’ was recorded by such popular singers as Bing Crosby, Jo Sta√ord, Slim Whitman, Louis Armstrong and even Elvis Presley, in the film The Trouble with Girls (and How to Get Into It!) (1969). Choral groups, especially a cappella organizations, remain strong today and have become something of a distinctive Ivy brand. In considering important musical gifts to the world from Yale, most attention is focused on the works of Yale-educated composers of classical music, such as Charles Ives 1898, Lukas Foss (special study 1939–40), William Mayer ’49, Lewis Spratlan ’62, ’65 M.M., and Yehudi Wyner ’50, ’52 Mus.B., ’53 M.M. Even more than on 2 0 5 R these luminaries, Yale’s musical reputation is founded on the presence of great teachers, including Gustav Stoeckel, Ernest Bloch, Quincy Porter, and Paul Hindemith, who established many of the foundations for academic training in modern music theory and composition. When we broaden the view to include popular music, at first glance Yale does not seem to have produced a cadre of high achievers. Several well-respected colleges and universities have produced chart-toppers: Pete Seeger and Bonnie Raitt went to Harvard; Pat Boone and Suzanne Vega attended Columbia; Bard College gave us Steely Dan; even mellow Hampshire educated the, well, mellow Elliott Smith. A recent active talent pool lies just north of New Haven. Wesleyan University in the past few years has graduated a number of forward-looking, commercially successful singers and performers: the indie goddess Santigold; the clever rap duo Das Racist; and the million-selling psychedelic pop band MGMT. Even Lady Gaga spent time at NYU. So where are the Yale pop stars? Too busy studying? An acquired taste? Not at all – as a survey of the past two centuries will reveal. A wealth of contributions has been made by Yale alums to the worlds of pop, rock, and musical theater. A tour of Yale’s place in the popular musical imagination must begin with a look at the first great medium for sharing music in the modern era: printed sheet music. Before recorded sound, buying sheet music was the primary way middle-class consumers shared in a growing nation’s favorite pastime – singing songs around an upright piano in the parlor – and Yale played at least a small part in that fun. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Yale’s participation in popular music came via songs about the place, rather than through personalities or singing stars. The best-known Yale songs were sporting: ‘‘The Down the Field March’’ (1911), by Stanleigh P. Friedman 1905 and C. W. O’Connor; ‘‘Fighting for Eli, March and Two-Step’’ (1909), by Geo. N. Finkelstone 1911 and J. McCarthy; ‘‘The Yale University March Song’’ (1913), by Mertie Bamber Bergen, the woman who also penned ‘‘The Princeton Freshman March Song’’; and ‘‘Big Chief Eli, a Yale War Song’’ (1906), by Marshall M. Bartholomew 1907, ’53 M.A. Privatim. Dances were also popular from the early days: ‘‘Yale College Quick Step’’ (1843), by P. A. Smith; ‘‘The Yale Schot- 2 0 6 Y O U N G Y tische’’ (1893), by J. Edward Geary (published in New Haven by Geary Brothers, who thoughtfully included dance instructions with the sheet music); and a series of two-steps from the turn of the twentieth century: ‘‘The Yale Society Two-Step’’ (1894), by Charles L. Van Baar; ‘‘The Yale Banner...