Pomp & Circumstance

As summer nears its end, we congratulate everyone who has marched in a graduation this season. We'll spare you another repetition of "Pomp & Circumstance" and pose this question instead: Why is that Elgar composition the standard for graduation music?

When Edward Elgar composed "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1" in 1901, he was so tickled with himself that he told a friend, "I've got a tune that will knock 'em -- knock 'em flat!" But he wasn't referring to robe-wearing graduates or their proud parents.

A recent publication from Yale tells the tale. Indeed it was at Yale's 1905 commencement ceremonies that P&C first rained on a commencement crowd, but the composer had never intended it that way. His series of five marches began as successful concert pieces. "March No. 1" premiered in London to an ecstatic audience that insisted on multiple encores. Elgar reused the tune in 1902's "The Land of Hope and Glory," a part of the Coronation Ode he created for Edward VII. (A revised version of this hymn remains Britain's unofficial national anthem.) The original piece had its American premiere at Auditorium Hall in Chicago, performed by the Chicago Symphony. In 1905, Elgar accepted an invitation to receive an honorary doctorate at Yale's commencement, having been persuaded to travel to New Haven (after refusing other such invitations elsewhere) by his friend Samuel Sanford, a member of Yale's music faculty. During the festivities, which included conferring degrees on all the graduating students and 13 other honorees, the audience heard parts of Elgar's first oratorio, "The Light of Life."

At the conclusion of the ceremonies, the audience left Woolsey Hall to the tune of… yes, "Pomp and Circumstance March No.1," performed by the Yale Orchestra.

According to the Elgar Society's web site, "The reason for the popularity of the march has to do with Elgar's ability to invent melodies that convey a complex of emotions. The tune manages to sound triumphant, but with an underlying quality of nostalgia, making it perfectly suited to a commencement that marks the beginning of one stage of life, but the end of another."

They continue, "The impression that the work had on the assembled audience led to its gradual adoption by other prestigious American universities: Princeton in 1907, Chicago in 1908, Columbia in 1913, Vassar in 1916 and Rutgers in 1918. By the mid-1920s it was being performed by many others, and today it is heard at graduation ceremonies throughout the country, both at colleges and at high schools."

Though not at Yale. At least not since 1950, when the college Secretary told the band director "Do not play that song." Since that time, Yale graduates have marched to a diverse repertoire, including Walton and Berlioz. But it all started there.

Read the article in the Yale Alumni Magazine

Visit the Elgar Society and read about the Pomp and Circumstance marches