The Wellesley Cheer
The Wellesley Cheer as it appears in today's Song Book
The Wellesley Cheer is a short musical signature that was typically sung at the end of Stepsinging. It was composed by May Sleeper Ruggles, Class of 1886. A copy of the Wellesley College Prelude, a publication from 1890, describes the new cheer in action:
Just one year later, records from 1891 show the Wellesley Cheer being added as a musical tag to the Alma Mater. Its short length made it easy to learn, and it was heard at many events thereon. In a letter from 1921, written by student Eleanor Blair to her family, she describes cheering after Friday morning chapel: "My, but the cheering was wonderful! Just wait, Mutter, till you hear Wellesley cheering!"
The Wellesley Cheer became an important part of the Stepsinging experience of "changing steps," where older classes yield their places around the chapel to the younger classes, symbolically "aging up" each group into their new spot. The process is described in the College's centennial book, Wellesley College 1875-1975: A Century of Women:
"At the final step-singing, seniors, as they always have, give up their steps to the juniors and walk slowly away while the others sing a valedictory. This is apt now to be "Evolu" instead of the poignant step-song (date 1905):
Slowly now we go our way
With eyes that dimly see
And leave the steps alone at last
To memory, to memory
Finally the seniors, disjoined now from the group, give the Wellesley musical cheer, "Tra-la-la-la," ending with a "Wellesley" which, if atmospheric conditions are right, comes back in the form of a haunting echo. In more sentimental days this was a moment charged with deep feeling, and though there were always people who found it "corny," this very adjective suggested an emotional response."
One lesser known positive quality of the cheer is its simplicity as a learning tool; it is the perfect musical tool to teach a young child (perhaps a future Wellesley student) to spell WEL-LES-LEY, and a good beginning tune to inspire early Wellesley spirit. (It's never too soon- take it from yours truly, who learned it at age three and wound up a most devoted alumna!)
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Click play below to hear a recording of The Wellesley Cheer
A student blows a noisemaker at Stepsinging in 1980
Click play below to hear The Wellesley Cheer played on the Galen Stone Tower carillon
Student sporting her best green getup at Stepsinging 1981
