Graduation season is full afoot , and with this special time of year comes a nostalgic and quite familiar tune . In high school middle school and university stadiums throughout the United States , Edward Elgar ’s “ Pomp and Circumstance March No . 1 ” fills the halls , just as it has for decades . But how did this finical song become the soundtrack of American graduations ?
It has a surprisingly majestic past tense . Edward Elgarcomposed the song in 1901 ; King Edward VII heard it and requested that he bring the line at his 1902coronation . The song ’s title , “ Pomp and Circumstance , ” draw from a memorable seam inShakespeare’sOthello : “ Pride , eclat , and circumstance of glorious war ! ” It was , as the quote suggest , in the beginning intended to representwarand its gloriole , particularly the power of England ( if you ’ve ever completed secondaryeducation , you may feel that that journeying is quite tight to finger like a field of honor . )
England , as we now acknowledge , was n’t the last destination for Elgar ’s famous work . The tune made its way across the pond when the composer welcome anhonorary doctoratefrom Yale University in 1905 . Yale ’s ceremonial occasion featured an regalia of instrumental masterpieces from a variety of classical artists . But “ Pomp and Circumstance ” was the only one that caught on in such a substantial way . Princeton University then used it in 1907 ; the University of Chicagofollowed in 1908 ; and Columbia University added it in 1913 .
Other shoal noticed that the Ivy ’s were incorporating the song into their beginning ceremonies and it keep to circulate from there . It ’s a fitting musical background to such a momentous , often bittersweet social function like a commencement ceremony : The birdcall has the uncanny ability to sound joyous and melancholy all at once , both smell that someone calibrate may strongly name with .
It also helps that the track is royalty - free , so even the smallest schools can use it to carry on the tradition without give to shell out .
