Songs of Chi Psi

Before recording and playback technology advanced throughout the 20th century,
leading music to become a uniquely personal experience, music was usually
only experienced alongside other people for the entirety of human history. Composers made a living writing sacred music for the Christian church, or later, songs that could be played and sung around barroom pianos.

Throughout the 19th century, as popular music diversified from primarily secular tunes with much German inspiration in the midst of the musical Romantic period, collegiate literary societies began to form around this social sharing of music. By the middle of the century, involvement in literary societies diversified to other social clubs, Greek societies, and sport teams, and social singing had fully permeated the New England collegiate culture. Colleges’ alma maters and fight songs were written and popularized, and many institutions published their own song books. (James Lloyd Winstead, When Colleges Sang: The Story of Singing in American College Life, 2013)

In volume five of The Purple and Gold in 1888, under the category of “Some Wants,” the editor suggested that Chi Psi needed, first and foremost, a good songbook. At that point we had a little volume, published several years earlier, containing a meager collection of loyal verses, set to “profane” airs, reasonably good for its time and kind. The current version of our songbook lies within Chapter 16 of the Chi Psi Story. Singing within the Fraternity at national gatherings and around the pianos in Lodges continued, in large part, through the mid-20th century until social singing culture started to decline due to the advancement of playback technology and the exponential diversification of contemporary music genres with new electric and synthesized instruments. 

While we may not sing quite as much as our forebears, to this day, singing is still a large focus during gatherings of Chi Psi, especially during banquets of the Annual Convention. In recent years, brothers have formed quartets to serenade and lead the attendees of that banquet in four-part harmonic renditions of the Banquet Song, Chi Psis Ever, and others of our anthems. If you are interested in helping bring music to our Conventions as a quartet and have some experience singing harmonies independent of other voices, please express interest here.