Harvard and Princeton Glee Clubs

Though the Glee Club's joint football concerts are rarely artistic revelations they are good tests of the spirit and technique of the participating groups.

On Friday night, the Harvard Glee Club reaffirmed its position as one of the foremost college choruses in the country. Lotti's Crucifixus was rendered with impeccable diction and great emotional intensity. Mr. Woodworth distinguished carefully between flowing counter-point and contrasting chant-like sections, and he never permitted the tempo to lag. After this elegant bow to the Baroque a selection from Berlioz' Damnation of Faust did not fare so well. The attacks were often uncertain, and the singers almost shouted some of the high notes. A lack of preparation was apparent in some nearly disastrous mistakes and the frantic tempo.

Two Philippine folksongs are prize compositions in a contest sponsored by the Glee Club among native composers. They are saturated with harmonies which must have originated in a Manila barbershop. There are some interesting effects when the lower voices chant monosyllables against a tenor melody, but the overall result often seemed too much like an M-G-M sound track. Choruses by Gilbert and Sullivan showed the Glee Club to best advantage. The all-important diction was perfectly clear and the piano accompaniment of Lawrence Berman '56 and William Lindahl '55 added to the zest of the singing.

Compared to the energetic work of the Harvard singers, the Princeton Glee Club made a rather poor showing. Mr. Weinrich has trained his singers inadequately in the fundamentals of choral style, and one shudders to think that the insipid solo group in Mendelssohn's Hunting Song represents the best voices at his disposal. In Schubert's Komm Heilger Geist the tenors used falsetto indiscriminately to reach notes beyond their range. Mr. Weinrich continued with Four Peasant Songs by Stravinsky, a work which has replaced Bullfrog on the Bank as a staple of Ivy League glee clubs. In comparison with the virile Amherst version we heard two years ago, Princeton's performance was disappointing. The striking dissonances were merely out of tune; rhythms that should have been incisive were flaccid.

Nassau made a better showing after intermission, with some old English glees. The words were intelligible and the clever Amo, Amas brought chuckles from Latin scholars.

Just after intermission, the men's choir of Helsinki University sang four selections. This Finnish group is composed of much older men than Harvard or Princeton's clubs, and for sheer weight of tone it surpassed them both. The loud passages rang out with amplitude pushed to the point of stridency. This was a marked contrast to the sensuous Harvard sound and certainly far removed from Princeton's pale efforts. But the Finns' precise phrasing, virtuoso soloists, and energetic sound roused the audience to the heartiest applause of the evening.