No Discourtesy

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

May I ask you the favor of printing in your columns the following statement in reply to the letter of Mr. Delcivare King printed in the CRIMSON issue of October 22.

The primary object of the Harvard University Band is to furnish suitable music during intervals in the football games and to encourage the singing of Harvard songs by the student body. At the more important games we offer more elaborate programs in preparing letter formations and in playing the songs of the visiting college whenever possible.

It is a fact--perhaps not generally known by those who charge us with lack of courtesy--that, with the exception of two of the Yale songs, none of the songs of those colleges which are our opponents on the gridiron are available at any price in band arrangement, and in some cases even vocal or piano copies are not to be obtained with ease. On the other hand such Harvard songs as "Our Director" and "Veritas" are standard marches and can be purchased at any time in band arrangement, and In some cases even vocal or piano copies are not to be obtained with ease. On the other hand such Harvard songs as "Our Director" and "Veritas" are standard marches and can be purchased at any time in band arrangement. For as to arrange the songs of other colleges suitably would involve considerable expense, and we do not feel that we are discourteous in failing to play the visitors songs at the early games of the season. Certainly every effort is made to procure the required song, but we must accept conditions as they are. It might be interesting to ascertain the number of college songs besides "Our Director" which the Holy Cross Band, for example, plays.

Finally, it is unreasonable to expect that an organization as large as the Harvard University Band, which numbers among its members many new-comers to Harvard, totally unfamiliar with our songs and with the conduct of the band, could, in three short rehearsals, furnish as complete a program early in the season us at the Princeton and Yale games. Ambrose F. Keeley '27,   Director Harvard University Band.