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