A History of the Rutgers University Glee Club

DAVID F. CHAPMAN received his Ph.D. in historical musicology from Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Jersey, where he teaches courses in music history and literature, performance practice, and ethnomusicology. He is the author of the monograph Bruckner and the Generalbass Tradition and is currently preparing an edition of Anton Bruckner's Nullte Symphony (WAB 100) for the New Bruckner Collected Works series.

Foreword 

Introduction 

Chapter 1  

Early History 



The Männechor Tradition and the English Catch Clubs 





The Glee Club of London 





Collegiate Glee Clubs in America 



The Rutgers College Glee Club 



Birth of the Rutgers College Glee Club 





Composition of “On the Banks of the Old Raritan” (1873) 



Sidebar – Howard Newton Fuller (1854-1931) 



1872-1879 – Fits and Starts 





1880-1895 – Stable Leadership 





Loren Bragdon’s Leadership in the 1890s 



Sidebar – Loren Bragdon (1856-1914) 

Sidebar – The Rutgers Songbook (Songs of Rutgers) 

Sidebar – Alma Mater 

Chapter 2 – New Directions 



George W. Wilmot (Musical Director/Leader, 1895-1906) 





Raymond W. Smith (Leader, 1906-1915) 





Collaborative Efforts 





Merger 





New Leadership 



Chapter 3 

The Modern Era – Rutgers at 150 



Howard D. McKinney, ’13 as Director 





World War I 



Sidebar – Paul Leroy Robeson, ’19 (1898-1976) 



Peacetime Pursuits – The Development of the Musical Clubs 



Sidebar- The Jazz Bandits – Success after Rutgers 



Rutgers University 



Chapter 4 - Change in Focus 



The Demise of the Mandolin Club and the Rise of The Musical Clubs 





Leadership from Within 





The Assistant Director – F. Austin Walter, ’32  





World War II – An Unwelcome Detour 



Sidebar – Glee Club Discography – From the Vicissitudes of War to European Tours 



Post-War 



Sidebar – Lake Minnewaska – An Idyllic Location for Work and Recreation 

Chapter 5 – Prestige and Travel 



The 1950s – The University Choir 



Sidebar – Howard Decker McKinney (1889-1980) 



The 1960s – International Travel 



Sidebar – Glee Club on the Road – Sixty Years of International Travel 

Sidebar – Glee Club and the Gridiron – Early Involvement and a Continuing Tradition 

Sidebar – Soup Bowl – A Modern Glee Club Tradition – 1967-Present 



The 1970s – The Centennial Year (1972) 





The 1980s – Walter’s retirement – New Directors and Directions 



Sidebar – Francis Austin “Soup” Walter (1910-2000) 

Sidebar – Frederic Hugh Ford 

Chapter 6 – Into the New Millennium 

Sidebar – Patrick Gardner (b. 1953) 



Patrick Gardner – 1993-Present 





The New Millennium 





The 2010s 





2020 – the Glee Club in the Year of Covid-19 





Beyond to the 150th Anniversary Celebration 



Sidebar – Christmas in Carol and Song – A Rutgers Tradition for Over 100 years 

Sidebar – Student Leadership – A Glee Club Hallmark 

Epilogue 

Index