Nassau Hall - Princeton's Alma Mater

Princeton's Alma Mater

The song Old Nassau was adopted as Princeton University's alma mater in 1859. The lyrics were written by Harlan Page Peck, a member of Princeton's class of 1862, and first published in the March 1859 issue of Nassau Literary Magazine. The music, originally to be set to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, proved unworkable, and Karl A. Langlotz, a professor of music at Princeton who had studied composition under Franz Liszt, wrote a new melody for the song's lyrics. According to Leitch's A Princeton Companion, Langlotz "wrote the music for Old Nassau on the porch of his house at 160 Mercer Street one fine spring afternoon."

Peck's lyrics have been altered significantly over the years, and several verses of Peck's original text have been omitted. Once female students began to attend Princeton after the adoption of a coeducational program in 1969, the song's lyrics were altered to become gender neutral.

The original lyrics of the song's first verse and refrain are as follows:

Tune every heart and every voice,

Bid every care withdraw;

Let all with one accord rejoice,

In praise of Old Nassau.

Chorus

In praise of Old Nassau my boys,

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Her sons will give, while they shall live,

Three cheers for Old Nassau.