Communication

(The Crimson invites all men in the University to submit signed communications of timely interest. It assumes no responsibility, however, for sentiments expressed under this head and reserves the right to exclude any whose publication would be palpably inappropriate.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

The Whiting Recitals, or, to speak more academically, "Five Expositions of Classical and Modern Chamber Music" begin the fifteenth season at Paine Hall, Wednesday evening, December 7. These concerts are specially given for students of Harvard as a demonstration of the idea that the highest forms of music can be enjoyed by most college men if they are given a chance. For years, now, Mr. Whiting has convinced undergraduates that they are naturally more musical than they think themselves to be, as there seems to be a tradition among many that they are too athletic to be able to enjoy the Fine Arts, although it is difficult to see the incompatibility. There never were finer youth than those of ancient Greece. Every man at that time aspired to be an athlete or a poet; every man cultivated his taste for Art as diligently as he developed his muscles.

Most of our college students are half the men the Greeks were because they have given themselves half their experience. We are eminent in field sports and could probably stand up to any Greek runner, jumper or thrower but we should fall down when it came to a contest of wits requiring that suppleness of mind which comes of high thinking. A strong are and a rich mind should be the attainment of every college man as the result of systematic and persistent effort.

The appreciation and understanding of music, by merely listening to it, is one of the means of spiritual cultivation; a method which is easy to adopt and almost painless and which guarantees to everyone something interesting to think about.

As Mr. Whiting does not wish these affairs of his to be considered entertainments but rather business-like gatherings of men to consider an interesting subject he has arranged, as usual, that the floor seats shall be free to men students and reserved exclusively for them.

At the first recital Mr. Whiting, playing the Harpsichord, will appear with Miss Loraine Wyman, now a great favorite in Cambridge, who will sing English and French folk-song and ballads of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, and Mr. George Barrere, the celebrated flutist of the New York Symphony Orchestra, who has been associated with Mr. Whiting in these concerts for the past eleven years. Mr. Whiting will introduce the proceedings by a short talk on Music in general and this program in particular.

The full list of dates is December 7th, January 18th, February 15th, March 22nd and April 5th. W. R. SPALDING.

November 28, 1921.