The Opinionator

Pomp and Circumstance: The Graduation Song

With schools coming to a close over the next few weeks many of us will be giving and getting graduation gifts while enjoying the aroma of purple and white lilacs and sitting in folding chairs on sun drenched lawns.  It is a time to celebrate achievement and to be proud of ourselves, friends and neighbors for academic achievements.

 If you have graduated from high school or college or have attended a graduation, you are, no doubt, aware of the processional march "Pomp and Circumstance" written by Sir Edward Elgar in 1901 (shown above is a YouTube of  a rare film of Elgar talking and then conducting the trio of his Pomp and Circumstance March no.1 at the opening of EMI's Abbey Road studios in London on 12 November 1931). 

I had been happy, if the general camp,
Pioners and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So I had nothing known. O, now, for ever
Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars,
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!
And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The immortal Jove's dead clamours counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!
- Othello, Act 3, Scene 3 Actually there are five "Pomp and Circumstance" marches, but the one we are accustomed to hearing is March #1. The name comes from a line in Act III of Shakespeare's "Othello."

 While the original compositions were modified to become "Land of Hope and Glory" at the coronation  of Edward VII, the major American premier of "Pomp and Circumstance" was at Yale University on June 28, 1905. You can hear the march on any number of YouTube clips under the name of "Pomp and Circumstance," "Land of Hope and Glory" and "Sir Edward Elgar." One clip is an antique black and white clip of Elgar himself conducting. Many in Britain argue that "Land of Hope and Glory" should replace "God Save the Queen" as the national anthem.

 Elgar was given an honorary doctorate at Yale the year he introduced "Pomp and Circumstance." As the graduates and faculty exited the hall, the march was performed involving the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and the Yale chorus, glee club and music department faculty. The work made such an impression on the assembled audience, that the tune was gradually adopted by other prestigious American universities.  Princeton used it in 1907 followed by Chicago in 1908, and then Columbia, Vassar and Rutgers a few years later.  By the mid-twenties it was being used at many colleges and today it is heard at many graduation ceremonies, both high school and colleges. It is known in the US as "the graduation song."

It is thought that a reason for the popularity of the march has to do with Elgar's unique ability to invent melodies that convey multiple emotions. The tune manages to sound triumphant, but with an underlying quality of nostalgia, making it perfectly suited to a commencement that marks both a beginning and an end.

I have personal memories of this stirring march at my own high school graduation 50 years ago in northern New Hampshire.  We seniors who played in the school orchestra had to leave our seats on the stage and proceed down and around the stage to the pit, gingerly stepping over chairs and cables to amplifying systems, trying not to trip over our graduation gowns as we joined colleagues.  My trombone and I were never prouder than  when we needed to supply the musical part of graduation. I remember one year in the 1960's a high school I knew had the seniors entering and exiting to the Beatles, "Hey Jude" which had some promise to be a competitor to Elgar's work.  "Hey Jude" never really caught on the way "Pomp and Circumstance" did.  Like graduating naked under your academic robe, "Hey Jude" was a temporary aberration of the sixties.