"MUSIC AT HARVARD."

VARIOUS opinions that have been expressed on articles in the college papers treating of music at Harvard deserve some comment.

A correspondent in the last Advocate takes exception to the articles in question because, as he says, the method used of exhorting us to remedy the matter seems to him unwise. We heartily agree with him that it would be very unwise to try to improve musical matters at Harvard by showing that it was "the thing" to sing at Yale or Amherst. Moreover, if he had taken the trouble to read carefully the article in the Crimson before attempting to criticise it, he would have found that no such method of exhortation was there attempted.

In the first place, we took it for granted that good part-singing needed nothing to recommend it, and that most people enjoyed it. We see now that our assumption was a false one, for "L." apparently thinks that a Glee Club, if it is to succeed, must have a set of reasons drawn up to justify its existence.

Having made this assumption, we then attempted to show in a few words that we had not much good music here, using Yale and Amherst, where music is generally acknowledged to be good, as standards of comparison, not as places setting a fashion that it might be well to adopt at Harvard.

The point we tried to bring out clearly was, not why we should have more and better music at Harvard, but why we do not have it. This we traced back to the prevailing lack of energy, for which we could neither account nor propose any remedy.

As to the objection (which has been urged) that it was not proper to compare Harvard with Amherst and Yale, we can only say that, if we did not suffer by the comparison, such objections would not be entertained for a moment. Who hesitates to compare Harvard as a boating college with Yale?

There are certain indications, however, of renewed energy in musical quarters. The Glee Club shingle comes out much oftener and stays much longer than it did a month or so ago.

W. T. C.