The School Song: Creating Identity through Shared Musical Experience within UK Independent Day and Boarding Schools.

Bryden, Elizabeth Emma (2026) The School Song: Creating Identity through Shared Musical Experience within UK Independent Day and Boarding Schools. Doctoral thesis, Birmingham City University.

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Text Elizabeth Emma Bryden PhD Thesis_Final Version_Final Award October 2026.pdf - Accepted Version Download (8MB)

Abstract

The anthemic songs composed especially for individual UK independent senior schools belong to a diverse yet fragile body of works performed at key events during the academic year which has remained unexplored and in a disparate state of collection until this research. This research draws together these disparate compositions, enabling a closer consideration of independent school songs as a type of artefact, connecting school communities over time. The outcomes of this research are the first significant collection of independent school songs and a novel Etymophonological Framework with which to analyse them. This framework is applied to two distinct case studies which interrogate both the history and performance practice of school songs and records the individual and communal responses to those songs. This thesis therefore establishes how independent school songs have created and maintained communal identity through collective performance since the 1840s, and their relevance to those communities today.

This study utilises a mixed methods approach, involving the collection of school song ephemera, the recording of compositional and prosopographical information in a database and the coding and analysis of the collected song text. Qualitative data was collected from school communities through semi-structured interviews and online surveys.

This thesis demonstrates that songs perform important and complex roles in creating, sustaining and reinventing identity within UK independent senior schools; fee paying schools also known as Private Schools or Public Schools. However, the investigation of this phenomenon has exposed the unstable approaches taken towards song preservation which, in conjunction with school closures, have contributed to the fragility of the corpus. As such, suggestions are made on how song preservation may be addressed on an individual school level and at a national level alongside avenues of further research within this field.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Dates:	Date Event 19 October 2026 Accepted
Uncontrolled Keywords:	School songs, independent schools, communal music, music education, John Farmer, Harrow, institutional identity
Subjects:	CAH22 - education and teaching > CAH22-01 - education and teaching > CAH22-01-01 - education CAH25 - design, and creative and performing arts > CAH25-02 - performing arts > CAH25-02-02 - music
Divisions:	Doctoral Research College > Doctoral Theses Collection Royal Birmingham Conservatoire > Royal Birmingham Conservatoire - Music
Depositing User:	Louise Muldowney
Date Deposited:	26 Oct 2026 14:20
Last Modified:	26 Oct 2026 14:20
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/17285

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