Singing traditions

The tradition of student songs probably dates back to the Goliards. The Goliards were students in the Middle Ages, known as the authors of satirical songs or drinking songs. As soon as Polytechnique was created, singing and music masters gave lessons to students outside of class time. Shows were given, at first simply musical, which were then enriched with new forms of performance, calling on the talents of the students' songwriters. Whether singing about teachers and supervisors (shadow puppetry songs) or about a former student, or evoking student life, the song of the Ecole polytechnique still exists today. But more than a mere tradition, music has a direct relationship with mathematics: According to Pierre, who was a clarinetist in the orchestra in 2016, "A score is dissected to construct music and give it that irrational beauty, just as how in mathematical research, we try to make the irrational rational, and in this sense mathematicians are artists too."

From the beginning, the École Polytechnique has been more than just a place for scientific study; it also offers opportunities in other disciplines such as grammar, belles-lettres, and even drawing (a vital tool for engineers before computers were invented.) Even though music was not a part of the curriculum, it has always been a popular choice amongst students, as an extracurricular pursuit. But music is also a truly intellectual pursuit: "It's very romantic to think that music is just about feelings, but it's not very honest. It takes research, intellectual effort, and a lot of listening to conduct an orchestra. That is particularly true when you are working with musicians as cultured as these young players from the Grandes Ecoles," says Emmanuel Calef, Ecole Polytechnique alumnus and orchestra conductor.

Concerts are performed in the chemistry lecture hall, to which women were invited until their right to enter was revoked in 1813. Music rehearsals took place in empty exam halls and on certain special occasions an orchestra was put together: the grading session, the shadow ceremony, the General's concert, Point Gamma.

The shadow puppetry ceremony has been a tradition at the school since 1818, during which shadow puppets are projected onto a white sheet in a pitch-black physics lecture hall. The only remnants of this tradition are booklets of Shadow Songs and a few posters. Each caricatured shadow is accompanied by a song, a poem, or a speech that is often mocking or irreverent. All school staff attend: the general, the colonel, the captains, and all members of teaching and administration staff.

The Point Gamma ball began as a costume party organized by the students at the spring equinox, and references Aimé Laussedat's astronomy course: the name refers to one of the two points where the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic. This celebration is also the continuation of a much older party stopped in 1848: the dried fruit ball.

The General's Concert began in 1893 when General Gebhart (school year 1852), head of the École polytechnique, allowed students to give a concert in front of women (whose presence had been banned since 1813). These women were usually the wives of the general and other senior leadership staff at the school. It took place in spring, before Point Gamma.

Singing was taught at the time of the Restoration and received its claim to fame from the teaching of Emile and Amand Chevé, father and son, who succeeded each other as singing teacher from 1854 to 1907 and left their mark on generations of students.

The move of the Ecole polytechnique from Paris to Palaiseau, coinciding with the growing post-1968 reforms, erased some of these events. Some traditions remained, such as Point Gamma, and new fashionable musical activities also popped up. STYX, for example, is the École Polytechnique association responsible for providing the music and lighting for all student parties organized by the students themselves. Every year they organize a big night called STYX Night.

The Waves Studio (Atelier des Ondes, or A.D.O.) was set up at the École Polytechnique in the 1990s. The association’s initial goal was to allow interested students to develop their knowledge of studio recording techniques. After acquiring the equipment, the A.D.O. was able to provide a rehearsal space for groups of students from the school and could also open the studio for musicians from outside the school to record. The A.D.O also takes care of running concerts, along with STYX, organized in the school bar.