Commencement season is here.
It means caps and gowns, speeches, parties, job searches, and music.
Specifically, graduations in the US usually turn to a composition known as “Pomp and Circumstance,” even though that piece of music was not written with new grads in mind.
(People my age know, of course, that the real function of the song is to serve as the entrance theme for “Macho Man” Randy Savage.)
This work comes from English composer Edward Elgar, who took the title from a line in Shakespeare’s Othello about “Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!”
(The title was an intentional contradiction, by the way.)
It was a hit right out of the gate: when it was first performed in 1901, the audience reportedly called for it to be played a second and then a third time.
The piece was also performed, with a set of words by A.C. Benson, as “Land of Hope and Glory” at the coronation of King Edward VII.
Its success helped make Elgar a big name in music: he was knighted in 1904, and in 1905, Yale University gave Elgar an honorary doctorate.
A friend of Elgar’s was a professor there, and out of respect for the composer, the ceremony included several of his works, including “Pomp and Circumstance.”
In that case it came at the end of the ceremony, not the beginning, but soon, other schools were using that music to kick off commencements, until it just became a tradition used all over the place.
Ironically, Elgar himself never graduated from any conservatory, college or university: he had to drop out of school at age fifteen and worked mostly as a piano tuner until his music caught on.
Today in 2023, an odd moment in law enforcement.
Authorities in North Carolina were looking for a man who they say fled a traffic spot, led deputies on a chase, then ditched the car and fled into a pasture.
At which point, they said a herd of nearby cows “quickly assisted our officers by leading them directly to where the suspect was hiding.”
“Caught by cows” is a reality show I wouldn’t mind watching.
The Beautiful Irony of Pomp and Circumstance (WCRB)
Backing this show on Patreon would be a nice gift for a new graduate, just saying
