WORDS AND MUSIC

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

We were indeed appreciative of the statement in a recent CRIMSON of the problem posed by the increasing number of undergraduates wanting the opportunity of choral singing. The need is a growing one at Harvard, and when last year, Harry Kraut 2G in cooperation with the Freshman Dean's office, organized a glee club for freshmen, we gave it our full support. This organization is being continued this year with the full sponsorship of the Harvard Glee Club. It will be able to accommodate most freshmen who have tried out, and thus will take care of a significant portion of the 317 men quoted in the editorial as competing for the limited vacancies in the Harvard Glee Club.

Those graduates of last year's freshman group who have had the valuable experience of having their interest in choral music aroused, and who do not make the Harvard Glee Club next week, will not strictly "have no chance to continue singing." There exist the Bach Society Chorus, the Music Club Chorus, Alfred Nash Patterson's Chorus Pro Musica in Boston, church choirs throughout the Cambridge and Boston areas. The operetta choruses have in the past actually had a majority of non-Glee Club singers, and, as in the case of the Winthrop House Opera last spring, additional Glee Club members have been solicited only after the interest from non-Glee Club sources proved insufficient.

Most important, however, is the exciting possibility of House glee clubs. Adams House has had one for years; there are plans for a Dudley group under Lawrence Tafe '58; the Leverett House Glee Club, under John Grozier '56, is going into rehearsal momentarily.

Unfortunately the management of the Harvard Glee Club has already responsibilities it cannot be expected to extend much further. The details of its yearly operation are in themselves demanding, as last year's schedule of 51 concerts in over 20 towns would indicate. However, it has always been the Glee Club's policy to aid in any way it can other singing enterprises at Harvard. It will be glad to offer anything in the way of music, help in finding conductors, advice, or "contacts" at its command. The Freshman glee Club, we feel, has been a very significant forward's step. It is sincerely hoped that in the face of a growing musical demand, new and adequate solutions, especially along House lines, will be achieved. J. Carter Brown '56   for the Executive Committee   of the Harvard Glee Club