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Finding Their Voices - Amherst College

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The Donizetti Glee Club is most notable for the tour it took across the White Mountains<br />

in the summer of 1862, where, after paying for food, travel, and lodging, each member<br />

was happily able to record a profit of $1. This was the first known tour of any <strong>Amherst</strong><br />

musical group. At some point in the group’s career it employed a voice teacher. 19 The<br />

group dissolved in 1865 after most of its members graduated. Three of its remaining<br />

members, including Michael Burnham (later a trustee of the college), would go on to join<br />

the <strong>Amherst</strong> <strong>College</strong> Glee Club in its first season the very next semester. 20<br />

Known Members:<br />

1862-1863<br />

David O. Mears ’65 (leader)<br />

Stephen B. Rand ‘66<br />

Robert McEwen ’65 (nongrad)<br />

Edward P. Frost ‘65<br />

Charles E. Lane ‘65<br />

1863-1864<br />

David O. Mears ’65 (leader)<br />

George L. Putnam ‘65<br />

Edward P. Frost ‘65<br />

Charles E. Lane ‘65<br />

Stephen B. Rand ‘66<br />

Zabdiel Sidney Sampson ’65<br />

(pianist)<br />

1864-1865<br />

David O. Mears ’65 (leader)<br />

George L. Putnam ‘65<br />

Edward P. Frost ‘65<br />

Charles E. Lane ‘65<br />

Stephen B. Rand ‘66<br />

Michael Burnham ‘67<br />

Herbert J. Cook ’69 (flautist)<br />

Zabdiel Sidney Sampson ’65<br />

(pianist)<br />

Euterpean Club (See <strong>College</strong> Orchestra, c. 1870-1879)<br />

‘H.B.’ Quintette (aka Amphion Sextet) 21<br />

Years active: 1874–1876<br />

A vocal group originally colloquially named “H.B.,” for unknown reasons.<br />

Formed early in the fall semester of 1874 by a group of men who happened to room<br />

together, it soon became the most popular music group on campus. The group gained an<br />

extra member in the spring of 1876, the addition warranting a rebranding to the<br />

“Amphion Sextet.” In this incarnation the group performed for the Northampton Lunatic<br />

Asylum, 22 and was apparently well known for its “humorous [musical] selection and<br />

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$<br />

19 David Otis Mears, David Otis Mears, D.D.: an autobiography, 1842-1893 (Boston: The Pilgrim Press,<br />

1920), 29.<br />

20 The founder wrote an autobiography that detailed a small amount of the group’s history: Mears, David<br />

Otis Mears, D.D.: an autobiography (cited above).<br />

21 A brief history of the group is given in “Early Glee Clubs,” The <strong>Amherst</strong> Student (March 18, 1893): 177-<br />

178.<br />

22 “The Amphion Sextette gave a gratuitous entertainment to a large number of the inmates of the Lunatic<br />

Asylum in Northampton […]. The singing was heartily appreciated by the large and somewhat<br />

discriminating audience.” – The Utica Morning Herald and Daily Gazette (May 10, 1876).<br />

$ 168$

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