Gaudeamus igitur

"Gaudeamus igitur" (Latin for "So let us rejoice") or just "Gaudeamus", also known as "De brevitate vitae" ("On the Shortness of Life"), is a popular academic commercium song in many European countries, mainly sung or performed at university graduation ceremonies. Despite its use as a formal graduation hymn, it is a jocular, light-hearted composition that pokes fun at university life. The song is thought to originate in a Latin manuscript from 1287. It is in the tradition of carpe diem ("seize the day") with its exhortations to enjoy life. It was known as a beer-drinking song at many early universities and is the official song of many schools, colleges, universities, institutions, student societies, and the official anthem of the International University Sports Federation.

The lyrics reflect an endorsement of the bacchanalian mayhem of student life while retaining the knowledge that one day we will all die: memento mori. The song contains humorous and ironic references to sex and death, and many versions bowdlerize the text for performance in public ceremonies. In private, students typically sing ribald words.

The song is sometimes known by its opening words, "Gaudeamus igitur" or simply "Gaudeamus". In the UK, it is sometimes affectionately known as "The Gaudie". The centuries of use have given rise to numerous slightly different versions.

The proposition that the lyrics originate in 1287 is based on a manuscript held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. A poem starting with the words Subscribere proposui ("I have suggested signing (it)") has two verses that closely resemble the later "Gaudeamus igitur" verses, although neither the first verse nor the actual words Gaudeamus igitur appear. The music accompanying this poem bears no relation to the melody now associated with it. A German translation of these verses was made in about 1717 and published in 1730 without music. A Latin version in a handwritten student songbook, dating from sometime between 1723 and 1750, is preserved in the Berlin State Library (formerly at Marburg) but differs considerably from the modern text. The current Latin lyrics with a German translation were published by Halle in 1781 in Studentenlieder ("Students' Songs") by Christian Wilhelm Kindleben [de], who admitted to making significant changes to the text.

Below is Kindleben's 1781 Latin version, with two English translations (one anonymous, and another by Tr. J. Mark Sugars, 1997). The Neo-Latin word Antiburschius refers to opponents of the 19th-century politically active German student fraternities.

The first appearance in print of the present melody was in Lieder für Freunde der Geselligen Freude ("Songs for Friends of Convivial Joy"), published in Leipzig in 1782, together with Kindleben's German lyrics, but the tune was evidently well known before that. The first publication of the present Latin text together with the present melody was probably in Ignaz Walter's 1797 operatic setting of Goethe's Faust. It is also heard in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust.

Johannes Brahms quoted the melody in the final section of his Academic Festival Overture, in a fortissimo rendition performed by the full orchestra.

Sigmund Romberg used it in the operetta The Student Prince, which is set at the University of Heidelberg.