OF SAINTS AND SENIORS

Graduation time—and also time to dust off the seasoned march music for graduates filing in for the diploma ceremony. In my era of high school, that meant two occasions: baccalaureate (for which I, a violinist, played as part of the school orchestra) and commencement (its music task taken by the school band). In all these years, I never gave much thought to the what-and-why of those traditional marches. But behind them is quite a story.

Baccalaureate—perhaps because of its religious emphasis—has faded in many communities. In my hometown, the “marching-in” of robed soon-to-be-graduates was accompanied by a march known as “Sine Nomine.” The foreign title, I learned, was Latin for “No Name”! Some of us snickered about calling it “Old Faithful,” because the sheet music was so old it was quite tattered.

I had no idea that the 1906 tune, by famed musician and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, would become the music for the hymn that begins, “For all the saints who from their labors rest.” The lyrics were written by William Walsham How (1823-1897), the Anglican bishop of Wakefield, a historic city in Yokeshire, England. His hymn was designated for fall's “All Saints' Day,” celebrated the first Sunday of November. The tune and words would make their way into some 200 hymnals

The other graduation ceremony, commencement, retains much of its pomp and circumstance, although I'm disappointed by the rowdy student and audience behavior I've witnessed in recent years. There's something about the marching-in song that honors the solemnity of the ceremony. That occasion's music was the work of famed composer Edward Elgar in 1901, and used for the 1902 coronation of Britain's Edward VII, son of long-reigning Queen Victoria. Wait—there's more history involved. It's just one of six marches by Elgar inspired by a scene in Shakespeare's Othello involving, of all things, the unfaithful wife of a soldier.

After its royal use, it was chosen four years later for the Yale University commencement where Elgar was given an honorary doctorate. However, it wasn't “walking in” music but played as Elgar walked off stage.

Next to use the tune were Princeton, the University of Chicago, and Columbia. Then more colleges chose it as appropriate graduation music. One researcher said the tune lent itself to such occasions because of its regal melody, stately tempo, and warm tone colors. Now, it's the standard music for the sea of robes and tasseled mortar boards (who invented those? Painters? Just kidding) coming down the aisles.

Bet you didn't know all that! But my heart thinks ahead to another celebratory occasion. The apostle John wrote of an out-of-this-world vision of heaven. Uncountable angels, inexplicable beings, and finally every creature in heaven and earth, under and on the sea, singing:

To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever. (Revelation 5:13)

Honor, not to the graduates (and their families), but to the God of the universe.

One online video of “Pomp and Circumstance” (the address should be embedded when you click);

Bing Videos

Online link for “Sine Nomine” (just magnificent choir and organ, presented as hymn “For All the Saints”:

"For All the Saints" (SINE NOMINE) - Bing video (skip preliminary ad)