GLEE

(from Old English glo: music or entertainment), vocal composition for three or more unaccompanied solo male voices, including a countertenor. It consists of several short sections of contrasting character or mood, each ending in a full close. In style it is homophonic; i.e., based on chords rather than on interwoven melodies. The glee flourished from about 1740 to about 1830. The term is also loosely applied to various vocal compositions of the 17th19th centuries that do not conform to these characteristics; e.g., the instrumentally accompanied part-songs by Sir Henry Bishop (17861855). The glee is a purely English form and together with the catch, or round, it made up the greater part of the repertory of the glee clubs once prominent in English musical life. The most famous was the Glee Club (17831857). Others, still in existence, include the Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club (founded 1761) and the City Glee Club (founded 1853). Among the finest examples of glees are Glorious Apollo by Samuel Webbe the Elder (17401816), Music All-Powerful by Thomas Forbes Walmisley (17831866), and Great Bacchus by Charles Evans (17781849).