Swarthmore College Glee Club Records

In its heyday of the 1920s and 1930s, the Swarthmore College Glee Club was an auditioned, self-supporting singing group of about forty male voices. The ensemble gave a number of concerts each year on campus and in various cities under alumni auspices.

Founded in the fall of 1888 by members of the Class of 1889 and directed by Professor George A. Hoadley, the coeducational choir answered a desire for musical entertainment on campus. The author of an October 1888 article published in the Phoenix, the college newspaper, reported that the organization of a glee club was a feasible idea which had been suggested in the past. All that was necessary, in the words of the Phoenix writer, was an "active musical enthusiast" to set the ball rolling. The author believed that the "presence of soprano and alto would be a rich addition to a college glee club and one of which but few colleges could boast" - a belief which other Swarthmoreans evidently shared.

The initial character of the group was short-lived, however, as the 1893 Halcyon yearbook records a separate Male Glee Club of seven men within the larger group. Over the years, the all-male Swarthmore College Glee Club grew in numbers, comprising 17 voices in 1904, 38 in 1924 , and, by 1933, 50 men participating on campus performances, with 40 for the travelling concerts. Direction was provided by both students and faculty members at different times in the ensemble's history. The Glee Club normally performed with the orchestral accompaniment of the Instrumental Club, although it was also sang a cappella. The Glee and Instrumental Clubs had a well-established identity as part of the Swarthmore community well before the first official college orchestra and chorus were organized around 1927. The traditions which helped form this identity included an annual trip to Atlantic City with performances at venues such as Chalfonte-Haddon Hall (1930, 1931), the Marlborough-Blenheim (1932), the Hotel Traymore (1933), and the Hotel Morton (1937, 1938). The Glee Club also performed at hotels and for functions in the Poconos (The Inn at Buck Hill Falls, The Skytop Club), New York City (Hotel Plaza, Park Central, Hotel Vanderbilt), Philadelphia (Wanamaker store), and in Washington, DC. Many of these performances were organized by and for Swarthmore alumni. There was a strong connection between current and former Glee Club members. Another important part of the Glee Club's performance schedule were concerts with vocal and instrumental groups from other colleges and universities, including Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, and Beaver College. Especially popular among both members of the group and other Swarthmore students were the combined concerts of the Swarthmore and Haverford Glee and Instrumental Clubs. This annual concert, dubbed the crowning event of the Glee Club's season by the 1925 Halcyon, was followed by the Glee Club Prom"one of the biggest and most important events of Swarthmore's social calendar" (1931 Halcyon).

The group was occasionally broadcast live from radio stations such as WCAU in Philadelphia and WPG in Atlantic City. It completed at least one album and submitted a recording for a national competition in 1942. The Glee Club's 1930s repertoire was described as a "well-balanced program...of negro spirituals, the better known classical and semi-classical music and modern arrangements of semi-popular songs." These programs were often complemented by the music of other Swarthmore students, including the College orchestra, string quartets, and solo pianists. Almost every concert concluded with a rendition of the Alma Mater and/or a Swarthmore Medley.

The Glee Club was diminished around 1943 as the draft sapped Swarthmore of its male population and musical activity on campus became less organized. The college choir, however, which did continue as a 50 member ensemble during the war years, was noted as containing a very popular male chorus with several successful appearances on campus and in the local area. An album of traditional Swarthmore songs entitled "Swarthmore Sings: The Swarthmore College Glee Club" was recorded by the Glee Club and released in 1945.