The Pomp and Circumstance marches are a series of five marches composed by Edward Elgar (1857-1934).
The best known is the first in the series, Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1. The title was taken from Act III of Othello: "Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, The royal banner, and all quality, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!". It had its premiere in London in October, 1901, and the audience demanded two encores. In 1902 the tune was recycled for the "Land of Hope and Glory", which he included in his Coronation Ode for King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, and which has since become an English sporting anthem.
In the United States, however, the march is irretrievably associated with graduation ceremonies. It was first played at a commencement on June 28, 1905. Samuel Sanford, a pianist and Yale music professor who had arranged for the installation of the Newbury Memorial Organ in Yale University's Woolsey Hall. A friend of Elgar's, Sandford invited him to attend commencement at Yale and receive an honorary Doctor of Music degree. Elgar accepted, and Sanford made certain he was the star of the proceedings. The New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the College Choir, the Glee Club, the music faculty members, and New York musicians performed two parts from Elgar's oratorio, The Light of Life, and at the end of the ceremonies, as graduates and officials marched out of Woolsey, the recessional music was Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1.
The tune became de rigueur at American graduations, but not at Yale, where it has not been heard since 1950, when a band director was told not to play "that song", which had become "high school déclassé".
It is inevitably used for high school graduations, and is often played at college and university graduation ceremonies in the United States.
