Oftentimes, while walking through Princeton's campus, one hears the distinct and vibrant sounds of one of Princeton's twelve a cappella groups singing in an arch. Other Ivies are famed for their a cappella groups as well (such as the Brown Derbies or the Yale Whiffenpoofs), but it's at Princeton that we have this very special forum in which to sing.
No one knows exactly who first decided to walk into an arch and start singing, but they do date back to the early 1940's, when the Nassoons were formed.
In the late 1930s, a group of men from the Glee Club began playing around with some a cappella arrangements in the basement of Murray-Dodge Hall and sang for some small on-campus shows. At a concert at Yale in 1941, though, they got their big chance to do a set in the middle of the main performance.
The audience didn't warm up to them until they sang their now-famous "Perfidia" (a song about "the gods of love [who] look down and laugh at what romantic fools we mortals be"). The theme struck a chord with the audience, who thundered for an encore. The Nassoons were officially born.
The Nassoons started a tradition of a cappella – especially of bringing their music into the arches of the campus – that was continued by other Princeton men as the Tigertones began in 1946 and the Footnotes established themselves ten years later in 1956.
Women joined the a cappella scene shortly after their admission to the university, with the Tigerlilies – the first all-female group – forming in 1971. Then, in 1973, the music directors of the Nassoons and the Lils got together with a few members from each of their respective groups, asked a couple of Glee Club members to join as well, and started the first coed group at Princeton and at any Ivy League school. They went by various names in their early days (one of which was The Mixed Nuts), finally settling on "Katzenjammers," as they are known today.
As the years went by, seven more groups formed — the Tigressions, the Wildcats, Kindred Spirit, Koleinu, Shere Khan, Culturally Yours, and the Roaring 20's – to make up today's total twelve.
A cappella groups have a strong following on campus, with many students crowding into either Blair Arch or 1879 Arch weekly to hear them sing. Junior Eli Goldsmith attends them because he finds they are "a change of pace from normal social life at Princeton. I love the intimacy of the performance." And freshman Dan Klemperer said, " I am interested in music, but not doing anything musically myself, and arch sings are the closest thing that I have to it."
But, spectators aside, singing in the arch is just as great of an experience from the performers' perspectives. Freshman Raquel Frisardi of the Roaring 20's said, "Singing in the arch is great. There is a huge space, and you can feel the sound multiplying."
Amy Widdowson, a freshman in Shere Khan loves "to sing to my friends as well as a crowd" and claims that "when you're singing a solo and hit the sweet spot in the arch, nothing sounds better."
The rave reviews from singers are largely due to the acoustical structure of the arches themselves. Senior Ryan Brandau, the music director for the Katzenjammers, explained that, at many other schools, a cappella groups are forced to compete for the limited space in school auditoriums or have to settle to sing in frat house tap rooms.
At Princeton, he said, "I think we're incredibly fortunate to have a campus filled with little mini-performance spaces." When singing outside, the voices of the singers often dissipate into the air but, within the confines of the arch, "the dome-like ceiling bounces the sound from one side of the arch to the other, and the singers become surrounded by the sound of the entire ensemble and not merely the sound of the person next to them."
In effect, he said, "This creates the same satisfying sensation a recording artist has when she wears headphones that playback the solo line and the backup parts as she's singing."
Brandau's personal preference is 1879 over Blair because, since it is taller and narrower, it allows less sound to escape. Still, though, it's not perfect. If you look closely, Brandau said, "You'll notice that the two entrances to the arch are not situated directly across from each other but are slightly off-center." That, combined with the stairwell in the center of the arch, changes the flow of sound so that you can "hear one singer in an arch (usually towards the sides) far above the others, as though he or she were standing right next to me, singing into my ear."
Yes, Brandau said, there may be "arches that are more acoustically 'perfect,', but arch sings will probably remain in 1879 and Blair because of their location, special significance, and ability to accommodate large crowds."
So, as long as there are singers to sing, spectators to spectate and arches in which to sing, the arch sing will continue to be popular university events, uniting musicians and music-lovers alike on the Princeton campus.
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