Amherst College Archives and Special Collections. All rights reserved.
© 2003 Amherst College Archives and Special Collections. All rights reserved.
The Music at Amherst Collection documents the evolution of musical instruction, performance, and composition at the "Singing College," as Amherst has been called. Music has been a part of Amherst College life almost from its beginning, when the Trustees in 1833 appropriated $50.00 annually for the improvement of sacred music during Chapel and other devotional occasions. These monies went toward purchases of music and the salary of a director/part-time instructor. In addition, a Fine Arts course, first offered in 1865, included lectures on music by Professor Edward Hitchcock.
Extracurricular music also came early to Amherst. The five-member "Donizetti Glee Club" spent the summer of 1862 on a singing foot-tour of the White Mountains. This organization eventually became known as the Amherst College Glee Club. It achieved such popularity that, in 1877, the College added Frederick Zuchtmann to its faculty as "Instructor in Vocal Music" and incorporated the Amherst College Musical Association.
The Musical Association had a membership of roughly a third of the College, according to the Amherst Student in 1877. Its first class of members sang in the Glee Club, played in the banjo and mandolin clubs, or simply attended a variety of rehearsals and lectures on voice culture. In 1894, under the direction of Edward Sumner, the Musical Association became the first American college glee club to take its music abroad, touring England for four and a half weeks before enthusiastic audiences. Also in 1894, President Seelye appointed William P. Bigelow (AC 1889) as the first Professor of Music at Amherst College. Since at that time Harvard was the only other American school having such a position, this was a somewhat radical step. But other educational institutions soon followed: Columbia, Dartmouth, and then Williams College, which appointed Amherst alumnus Sumner Salter (AC 1877) as Professor of Music in 1905. The early visions of Dr. Edward Hitchcock and Rufus B. Kellogg became reality.
Bigelow's most significant contribution to music instruction at Amherst was the creation of a large-scale, hands-on workshop Oratorio Chorus of students, faculty, and professionals, chosen to perform selected masterworks that were studied in class. But his influence also helped to give the College a musical atmosphere that benefited individual students and affected campus life as a whole.
Around the turn of the century, the College Songs which eventually became an estalished part of Amherst's heritage proliferated to a great degree. Alumni Draper C. Bartlett (AC 1903), James S. Hamilton (AC 1906), and Jason Noble Pierce (AC 1902), as well as Professors Bigelow and John Genung, produced the bulk of the "College Song" prototypes in the few decades around 1900.
Foundations were thus laid for a musical life intrinsic to the Amherst experience today. The original, experimental department has grown to a full-size academic field, with a building of its own and eleven Majors in 1989. The Glee Club spends much of its time performing in international tours, festivals, and radio shows; and for the enjoyment of the campus community, the Club's "Home Concerts," first held in College Hall, now draws crowds in Buckley Recital Hall. Other groups have generated from the Glee Club and matured in their own right: the Double Quartet (DQ) and Zumbyes (two prototype a cappella groups), the Women's Chorus, and the mixed Concert Choir, which evolved as a result of coeducation. Lately, these singing groups have been joined by the Sabrinas, the Madrigal Singers, the Gospel Choir, and the Rhythm and Shoes revue company; the College Band has also been firmly reestablished. Concert seasons in College Hall and in Buckley draw well-known professionals for the enrichment of the entire community.
The Music at Amherst Collection consists of many types of materials: music (both printed and manuscript), photographs, printed material, personal correspondence and documentation, sound recordings, books, scrapbooks, some memorabilia, and a wealth of concert programs. Although there are gaps, the collection is relatively thorough in its coverage of the College's musical life during the periods 1880-1925 and 1965-1975, with coverage of the growth and history of the Glee Club being especially detailed. Overall, the music collection provides a unique perspective on the College, one that well documents the social, religious, and political atmosphere of the community.
This collection is organized into ten series:
There is no restriction on access to the Music at Amherst Collection for research use. Particularly fragile items may be restricted for preservation purposes.
Requests for permission to publish material from the collection should be directed to the Archives and Special Collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
[Identification of item], in Music at Amherst Collection [Box #, Folder #], Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library
The materials in the Music at Amherst Collection come from a variety of sources. A large proportion of the material (especially concert programs) was drawn from Hitchcock memorabilia volumes. Other materials come from alumni who were involved in the events and compositions and to whom we are indebted for their contributions to documenting musical life at Amherst.
Audio-Visual Collection (for sound recordings)
Posters Collection (posters advertising musical events from 1875-1905)
Bigelow, William P. (ed.).
Amherst College Office of Alumni and Parent Programs. "Amherst Songs." Link to MP3 recordings:
Stephen Langford (AC 1963),
Series 1, MUSICAL ORGANIZATIONS, 1824-ongoing, includes material on the College's clubs and organizations over the years, format depending upon the organization. Folders for groups current at this printing usually begin with a paragraph or two, written by a director or member, dealing with the group's activities and history, as known. Material for these and older groups may include programs from performances, pictures or reviews from the Amherst Student, publicity documents, and cross-referencing to scrapbooks and photographs.
Among the items of interest in this series are the Amherst College Musical Association's original record books, including its charter and constitution. Also notable is the material on the original College Band (formerly the Paean Band), which includes a handwritten account book, their constitution, and a roster of the original members.
This series also documents events and organizations that involved members of the greater community, such as Professor Bigelow's Oratorio Chorus (1900-c.1935). The Five-College Performances subseries treats valley/intercollegiate efforts. Smith College and Amherst collaborations, such as a gala 1961 tour of Europe for the Smith-Amherst Singers, led to the 1972 formation of the Four-College (later Five-College) Orchestra under the leadership of Professor L. Spratlan.
Organization within this series is alphabetical by name of each organization. Note that the material for the Amherst College Glee Club, due to its bulk, is a separate series; certain organizations that perform in concert with the Glee Club (notably the Mandolin Club and the DQ), can be traced also through the Glee Club Series.
Series 2, THE GLEE CLUB, 1870-1990, consists primarily of concert programs and news clippings from 1870-1976 and is the largest single segment of the collection. It includes publicity pamphlets and memorabilia such as concert tickets, dance cards, tour information packets (including itineraries and menus), an attendance book, and some correspondence.
The material in this series documents the history of the Glee Club, changing styles of music, performance practice, tour organization, and other activities. Highlighted concerts and events are: the 1894 Summer Tour of England, with exhaustive coverage of the twelve concerts performed, the travel itinerary, events on the ship, financial status, etc.; the series of Spring Western tours in the early 1900's; the White House concert for President and Mrs. Coolidge in 1920; the Bermuda Tour in 1928; the first World Tour in 1967 with Bruce McInnis; the 1969 and 1975 World Tours; the 1972 African Tour; the 100th Anniversary Concert 1965; the 1st Senior Concert 1968; and the concerts for the dedication of Buckley Hall in 1968.
This series is organized chronologically by season (i.e., Fall 1968, Spring 1969, Fall 1969, etc.).
Series 3, NON-AMHERST PERFORMANCES, 1860-1985, includes schedules for, programs from, and printed material about the concert series and lecture courses at Amherst. Significant performances by Elly Ameling (1973), Ralph Kirkpatrick (1965), Bela Bartok (1941), Mme. Schumann-Heink (1907), Milton Babbitt 1964, Roger Sessions (several dates), and the Boston Philharmonic (several dates when the fledgling group appeared in the 1880's and 1890's). Organization is chronological by five-year increments.
Series 4, THE DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC, 1828-1989, is divided into three sub-series:
A: Department Publications, 1968-1983
B: Department Histories, 1828-1989
C: Miscellaneous, 1878-1945
Department Publications contains the biannual pamphlet "Music at Amherst," and other printed material relating to the Music Building, the growth of the department, and special concerts.
Department Histories includes a set of printed or typed histories of music at Amherst, both music instruction and musical performance. Especially valuable are the histories put together by Howard D. French (AC 1895, in Amherst Graduates Quarterly, November 1935), Professor Henry G. Mishkin (his address for Massachusetts Phi Beta Kappa, July 1957), and Paul Linn (AC 1887, his BA thesis in Music/American Studies).
Miscellaneous contains music course work and exams and cross-referencing to the scrapbooks and memorabilia.
Organization of the material is by type, in a subjective order of importance.
Series 5, SONG COLLECTIONS, 1848-1961, contains printed collections of songs, including songs about Amherst, songs about Amherst men and women, and songs sung at Amherst. This includes collections for alumni song fests and class reunions and sets of "class songs" for particular graduating classes. Most of the collections include only lyrics and tune suggestions. Two notable exceptions are the song books (hardcover, with full score) published in 1910 and 1926.
Organization of these collections is alphabetical by title or type, then chronological (e.g., class songs for the class of 1854, then 1855, and so on).
Series 6, NON-AMHERST SONG COLLECTIONS, 1860-1952, consists of a small selection of general College songbooks containing representative songs from Amherst, along with other schools. These are arranged alphabetically by title.
Series 7, AMHERST COLLEGE SONGS, 1847-1988, includes songs written about Amherst College and written by Amherst College men and women, from the Latin odes of the mid 1800's to the 1988 College Song Competition. The folders in this series contain documentation, printed music, some manuscript copies, and some lyrics.
The series covers one box in the regular collection, and the first flat file which contains oversize piano music and manuscripts. Organization is alphabetical by song title.
Series 8: SOUND RECORDINGS, bulk dates 1942-1987, includes material produced for phonograph media. Recordings in the record box include College song productions sung by the Glee Club, several major orchestral/choral productions, a World Tour Glee Club album, and a set of records put out by the Zumbyes and Double Quartet. This series is grouped into three chronologically ordered sub-series, plus a fourth sub-series consisting of duplicate copies of many of the items in sub-series A-D:
A: Amherst College Glee Club Recordings
B: Amherst College A Cappella Groups
C: Amherst College Musical Ensembles
D: Duplicate Sound Recordings (all groups)
E: Non-Amherst Recordings
For other more recent sound recordings, see also the Audio-Visual Collection.
Series 9: SCRAPBOOKS AND MUSIC BOOKS, 1857-1908, contains two scrapbooks of Glee Club Archives, one for the period 1876-1894, the other for 1908-1920. These contain programs, clippings, and memorabilia of Glee Club activities throughout these years and are often duplicated in the collection elsewhere.
Two scrapbooks transferred to the Scrapbook Collection are also informative, those of Frank H. Parsons (AC 1881) and William P. Bigelow. The Parsons scrapbook contains material on the Glee Club during the late 1870s and 1880s, as well as a full documentation of the activities of the '81 Quartette, to which Parsons belonged. The Bigelow scrapbook contains material relevant to Glee Club history and the genesis of the Music Department.
Finally, this series contains copies of music, books, and individual pieces. These include chorus books from the Glee Club and the College Choir and one large bound book of music for the College Orchestra. Several of these include photographs or handwritten notes about the organizations on the inside front covers.
Series 10, POSTERS, 1874- (bulk 1970s-2000s), consists of announcements of musical events as well as advertisements for recordings for sale.