{"id":72872,"date":"2024-05-20T00:02:45","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T04:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=72872"},"modified":"2024-05-20T00:10:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T04:10:25","slug":"how-a-british-military-march-became-the-distinctive-sound-of-american-graduations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-a-british-military-march-became-the-distinctive-sound-of-american-graduations\/","title":{"rendered":"How a British military march became the distinctive sound of American graduations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Graduations throughout the United States erupt with some familiar sounds every year: the passionate cheering of friends and families, the lofty grandeur of speeches and, of course, one very recognizable tune.<\/p>\n

Most Americans \u2013 if they\u2019re even aware of its name \u2013 know it simply as \u201cPomp and Circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n

More specifically, it is the \u201ctrio<\/a>\u201d section of the most famous of Edward Elgar\u2019s five Pomp and Circumstance marches, \u201cMarch No. 1 in D Major<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Elgar composed the piece in 1901, he wasn\u2019t thinking about graduation or scholarship. He wrote it as a patriotic military march.<\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cpomp and circumstance\u201d originates in Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cOthello<\/a>,\u201d where Othello uses it as he speaks of the allure of the \u201cspirit-stirring drum\u201d of \u201cglorious war.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Britain, the melody still evokes the confident grandeur of an empire at its peak \u2013 just years before World War I shattered that confidence. The tune soon acquired a different set of associations in America, where by the 1920s it had become a graduation staple.<\/p>\n

The unbridled optimism of empire<\/strong><\/h4>\n

For a British military march to be reinvented as a graduation tune \u2013 by a former colonial subject of the U.K., no less \u2013 shows how people can bestow entirely new meanings onto old songs.<\/p>\n

Elgar had already achieved acclaim in the 1890s for works such as \u201cThe Black Knight\u201d and \u201cKing Olaf.\u201d By the time of\u00a0Queen Victoria\u2019s death in 1901<\/a>, Elgar was, according to biographer Basil Maine, the\u00a0greatest musician of the land<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The premiere of \u201cMarch No. 1\u201d elevated him into an even greater stratosphere of fame. Music critics and the public considered it one of Elgar\u2019s best for its stately, soaring majesty.
\n