The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Celebrate Commencement Day 2018 with Brahms and Elgar
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is The Big Day – Graduation or Commencement Day 2018 — at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The weather may be too rainy and too cold, but there is little choice as an alternative to the huge outdoor ceremony for thousands of graduates, plus friends and family, at Camp Randall Stadium (below) unless there is lightning or dangerous weather that could delay and cancel the ceremony.
Still, there is some great music to celebrate with and perhaps warm up with.
If you have a favorite suggestion for graduation music, leave the name of the composer and work, along with a link to a YouTube video if possible, in the COMMENT section below.
In the mean time, here are the two most famous works that will perhaps stir you or even warm you.
First is the Academic Festival Overture, which uses a student drinking song, that was composed by Johannes Brahms when he received an honorary degree.
And what would any graduation be without the traditional old standby that still never fails to touch most of those who hear it: the stately Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 — one of five composed and then used for a royal coronation –by Sir Edward Elgar
Congratulations to the Class of 2018.
This post is for you.
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Classical music: It is commencement weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at many other schools. Here are two pieces by Brahms and Elgar to celebrate the event
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By Jacob Stockinger
School is out!
This weekend is Commencement Weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Wisconsin System and many other colleges and universities across the nation.
Undergraduates will graduate in Camp Randall Stadium (below) today starting at noon.
And continuing students can at last put the hard work of classes and final papers and semester-end papers behind them.
So some celebration seems in order.
The Ear knows of two pieces that are surefire in the way they capture the spirit of the event.
For overall mood, The Ear thinks it is hard to top the upbeat energy of the “Academic Festival” Overture — heard below conducted by Leonard Bernstein in a YouTube video — which Johannes Brahms wrote on the occasion of receiving an honorary degree. It even includes an old Latin student drinking song.
The other piece is the “Pomp and Circumstance” March No. 1 (of 5) by Sir Edward Elgar — heard below in a YouTube video with a chorus singing “Land of Hope and Glory.”
Sure, it is overplayed for everything from elementary school to graduate school. But that is only because it fits the occasion so perfectly and captures the stately poignancy of the moment when you leave one life behind and turn to face another.
Are the two pieces “warhorses”?
Probably.
Make that certainly.
But The Ear thinks some old standards remain standards because they are just that good, not just that old.
Yet if you have other favorite works or you know of other worthy pieces – say, Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Oxford” Symphony that he wrote when he received an honorary degree –please leave word and a YouTube link in the COMMENT section.
Cheers and congratulations to all!
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