Class Songs written by alumni do occasionally turn up in the University Archives’ extensive collection of Class Reunion Books1. Alums since the mid-19th century have issued these often-elaborate yearbooks to mark major reunions (plus some that would now be considered minors). Though each book is unique, they usually contain biographical updates on classmates, along with reports or statistics on reunion activities and other class events.
Typically rather hefty, such volumes aren’t very handy to use as a songbook, and they seldom included music. Nonetheless, a few copies currently accessible online do show that the title, lyrics, or entire score of an eponymous reunion song would sometimes get printed there for posterity. Here’s a sampling from the turn of the 20th century (when Latinate reunion nomenclature was still in vogue):
•“The Ninety-Five March”: Written for 1895’s Quinquennial Reunion in 1900, this one was still being reprinted in their Decennial Record in 1905 and 25th Year Record in 1920. The eponymous score boasts that “We’ve come into town to do things up brown, So listen and hear our name—Ninety-Five”.
•“Ninety-Six Song”: This one turns up in the 1906 Decennial Reunion book of the Class of 1896, having originally been composed for their Triennial Reunion in 1899. (Third reunions were still a big deal at that point.) Said to be the most enduringly popular of several ’96 Class Songs, its lyrics were set to the well-known “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”. (“We are the warmest Class that ever left this town, There’ll be a hot time in Princeton tonight—”).
•“Ninety Nine March”: The Class of 1899’s 20th Reunion book in 1919 said this ditty “sounded even better than ever.” The title was an alternate name for the “Sacred Bird March”, their perennial Class Song originally penned back in 1909 for the 10th Reunion.
The march paid homage to ’99’s flagrantly facetious P-rade float. It reflected the jocular cult that the class had developed around a succession of ever-larger Sacred Bird effigies since parading their first one in 1900.
•“1901 Decennial March”: Sheet music for this one (without lyrics) got published in 1912 in 1901’s Decennial Record. That book also included words & music for a separate “Ode” with eponymous lyrics (“Princeton, thy sons return to thee, the Class of Nineteen One”).
More such examples may well turn up in future Archival research.
Sources:
Princeton University, The Class of 1895, Record of the Class of ’95 of Princeton University 1895-1900. Edited by the Secretary, Andrew Clerk Imbrie, Number Three, New York, Cooke & Fry, 1900. Courtesy HathiTrust.
College of New Jersey, Class of 1895, Decennial Record, 1895-1905. Edited by the Secretary, Andrew Clerk Imbrie, (No. 4), New York, Printed for the Class, 1905. Courtesy HathiTrust.
College of New Jersey, Class of 1895, The Class of 1895, Princeton University, 25th Year Record (1895-1920). Comp. by Andrew C. Imbrie, Class Secretary, and John Hamilton Thatcher, Vol VI, [Princeton] Printed for the Class, 1920. Courtesy HathiTrust.
Princeton University, Class of 1896, A History of Princeton '96 to the Time of the Decennial Reunion of the Class in June, 1906; and a Part of the History of the Princeton University during the Years 1896 to 1906. Edited by the class secretary Charles Byron Bostwick, New York, F. P. McBreen & Co., 1906. Courtesy HathiTrust.
Princeton University, Class of 1899, And Twilly Called, Being an Account of the Twentieth Reunion of the Class of ’99 Princeton, and a Record of the Class. Compiled by the Secretary, [n.p.], 1919. Courtesy Google Books.
Princeton University, Class of 1901, Decennial Record of the Class of 1901, Princeton University. Number Four, [Princeton, Univ. Press], 1912. Courtesy HathiTrust.
Footnote:
1Class Reunion Books Collection, AC214, Princeton University Archives, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
