Glee (part song)
English part song, mostly for male voices (17th–19th century).
What it means
The glee is an English part song usually written for male voices and normally sung without instrumental accompaniment. The name goes back to the Old English word for joy or play. Typical are three to five voices and several sections with changing mood.
Musical use
The glee was popular above all in the 18th and early 19th centuries in England and was cultivated in societies, the glee clubs, in which men sang together and partly presented the works in competition. The texts were mostly secular and cheerful, often on drinking or love themes. Later the term glee club also came to be used for choral societies in the United States.
The glee should be distinguished from the madrigal, which flourished in the 16th and early 17th centuries as a polyphonic genre, from the canon, in which all voices imitate the same melody, and from the catch, a canon-like drinking song. The glee is more freely built and is usually in homophonic texture.
Performance practice
Sing the glee with a well-balanced, unobtrusive sound and clear intelligibility of the text. Watch the voice leading of the male voices, especially when a note is shared among several voices, and shape the changes of mood between sections clearly.