Joseph W. Clokey

Who was Joseph W. Clokey?

Joseph Waddell Clokey was an educator, organist and composer of sacred and secular music in the first half of the 20th Century.

A student of Edgar Stillman Kelley, he served as dean of the School of Fine Arts at his alma mater, Miami University 1939-46 and had previously been professor of organ at Miami University and Pomona College. He was a faculty initiate of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity, and was responsible for the arrangement of music used in the fraternity's traditions. As an undergraduate, he and Joseph M. Bachelor wrote the first song for the fraternity Phrenocon which later became Phi Kappa Tau.

His work included two symphonies including the "Dorian" Symphony, two orchestral suites, a string quartet, a cello and violin sonata, twelve choral works in large form, five operas, organ suites, many organ pieces, and more than a hundred published choral works. These include "The Musical Trust," a 1925 ballad about a flautist, a tuba-player, and a drum-and-cymbal combo who cannot make any money on their own so they form a band together. This piece incorporates snatches from familiar American tunes including "Turkey in the Straw," "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay," "The Stars and Stripes Forever," "Dixieland," "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" and "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean."