students, organizations

Glee Club

The Trinity College Glee Club was founded in 1868. Within its first two years of existence, the club was also known as “The Euterpean Society,” however, the Glee Club officialized its college organization status in 1870, abandoning this alternate name. The group gave its first concert as The Euterpeans in the College Cabinet on February 9, 1869. In the early years of the Glee Club, it frequently split into smaller groups such as, in 1874, the Thunderers, the Beta Beta Quartette, the I.K.A. Quartette, and Ye Sweet Singers of Israel.

In November 1876, the faculty of the College adopted a resolution that banned singing on campus in an effort to tame the unruliness of the undergraduates. Following much student protest, the rule was amended to ban singing outside of 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. This spurred a student petition requesting that the hours be extended to 8:30 p.m., which was denied. Determined to perform, the Glee Club ignored the admonition and scheduled a concert for the celebration of George Washington’s birthday for the evening of Saturday, February 22, 1879. The faculty allowed the concert to go on, so long as the songs to be performed were submitted to them for approval. In response, the students held the concert off campus in downtown Hartford. Finding a loophole, they voted to disband the Glee Club so that the performance that occurred was not technically given by the Glee Club, but a collected group of Trinity men who had formerly been a part of the Glee Club. However, a Glee Club performance was reported in the Trinity Tablet as soon as May of the same year, so the society was not disbanded for long.

Glee Club, 1960. Photo credit: Trinity Ivy

In 1882, the Tablet reported that the Glee Club was “to take steps towards procuring the services of a professional leader and instructor for the ensuing year.” The Tablet noted that “Good work has been done in the past, and still better may be presaged of the future, if this plan is developed. It is generally conceded that we have musical talent enough in the college; discipline is the only thing needed.” ¹⁾

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, the Glee Club performed often at various College events as well as their own concerts, often rehearsing at Alumni Hall and Seabury Hall. They were a source of college pride, with the Tablet asking in 1902, “Why not make it our ambition to beat Wesleyan in the musical line as well as in athletics?” ²⁾ The society was not without its troubles, however. The Tablet and Tripod frequently reported a need for more tenors, and in 1928, the Tripod reported that the need had become so dire that the club could not go on without more men. The strongly written article indicated a certain level of distemper and disorganization within the club. “Did you really think that without any practice we could ever hope to have a glee club? Or did you harbor in your lazy breasts some vague ideas that probably after the rest of the club had rehearsed some six months you were to drop in during the months of April and be soloists at the concert a week later? After all probably the failure of the club is due to some of these reasons.” ³⁾ However, this issue must not have been too prohibitive to the success of the society, as only one year later the Glee Club was a “credit to the college,” according to the Tripod. ⁴⁾

In 1948, it was rumored that the Glee Club would not go forward with its first post-World War II season, but this rumor was refuted in the Tripod, and the club continued to perform. By 1951, the Glee Club was experiencing many issues related to disinterest — the Tripod reported that “The Trinity Glee Club ended a dismal season last week when its annual open-air concert was cancelled. This was one of four called off since last fall. Student participation in the glee club this year declined to its lowest since the group was reorganized after the war. Lack of men was the direct cause of last week's cancellation.” ⁵⁾ The author of the Tripod article posited that several previous concerts had been cancelled due to insufficient preparation of the musical material and that the cancellations had caused membership to drop, noting that the club was a “failure.” Nevertheless, the Glee Club continued to perform often throughout the late 20th century, even fielding a Varsity and Junior Varsity group for a time.

In 1969, the Glee Club became the “Concert Choir,” and never re-emerged under its previous name. Until 2018, the Concert Choir could be taken for credit as a Music course (MUSC 102).