INFORMAL SINGING.

The old traditional "college" song no longer seems to thrive at Harvard. This appears particularly at class smokers and similar gatherings, where the repertoire is usually limited to a few football songs and a confused rendering of "General Grant" or perhaps the "Stein Song." Other than these there is a noticeable lack of the "good song ringing clear." Energy that might well be expended in becoming familiar with words and parts is squandered in a primitive attempt to drown out one discord with another.

In the midst of this condition we have a College Glee Club that is acknowledged to be one of the best. The members know and render admirably the songs which they choose for their program, but a college glee club is not intended merely to give public entertainments or dual concerts; it has a distinct function within the College. It should not only sing to the students, but should lead them in singing and serve, as its name implies, to make jovial occasions more jovial.

One of the best ways to popularize the Glee Club is by means of the open air concerts of the spring evenings. There have been too few of these in recent years and they have been too perfunctory. Considerations of weather of course prevent any definite schedule, but if it became a custom for members of the Glee Club to gather at some spot in the Yard on warm evenings and sing for a little while merely for the pleasure of it, much would be done to cultivate more enjoyable popular singing, as well as to add a delightful touch to the Yard that has usually been experienced only on Class Day.