Yale-Harvard Glee Clubs

Traditional occasions are so often painful affairs, making up in nostalgia what they lack in every other area, that it was a double pleasure to attend one which was, on its own merits, as enjoyable as last Friday evening's concert. The annual serenade by the Yale and Harvard Glee Clubs on the night before The Game was once again a rousing success.

Making up a program for an audience whose interest in the music is likely to be tempered some what by other preoccupations is no easy task. The old music must not be too esoteric, nor the contemporary pieces too bizarre or difficult. The big numbers should not last more than about seven minutes, and they should be substantial without being excessively weighty. Variety is important, but the works must not be incongruous. And there should be a few, but not too many, sure-fire display pieces.

This year's concert was exemplary on all counts. The light pieces, such as the folk-song arrangements, were not trivial. The modern works showed effective vocal writing, especially Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by Fenno Heath, conductor of the Yale Glee Club. The selections from Mozart's Zauberflote provided music which was almost so profound as to be out of place. And there were, of course, the football songs, about which any commentary would be superfluous, if not sacrilegious.

The main reason for the success of this type of concert is the participation of two excellent choruses which are quite different in character and style. The Harvard Glee Club is very large and has a deeper tone than the smaller Yale group. The latter has a lighter quality, emphasizing balance and cohesion, showing itself best in works which are essentially chordal, while the Harvard chorus is strongest in polyphony. The Yale group is perhaps more adapted to performing on its own, and its tone is more rounded, having a sort of sophisticated barber shop quality; while the Harvard chorus sounds at times as though it missed the upper half, mostly in the numbers which were, in fact, originally written for mixed voices.

Besides the consistently polished singing by both choruses, there were two individual performances of unusually high quality. The first was a very moving solo by John A. Maxim, Jr. in the Heath work, and the other was Thomas Beveridge's simple yet eloquent reading of Mozart's "O Isis Und Osiris." Also worthy of note was the conducting of Fenno Heath, whose clarity and control were remarkable.

Of particular interest was the first appearance in Cambridge of Elliot Forbes as conductor of the Glee Club, although he led the Radcliffe Choral Society here recently. The inevitable comparisons between him and Professor Woodworth will probably be being made for some time to come, for their approach to choral singing and style of conducting are quite different. The emphasis on diction which was a trademark amounting almost to a fetish in past years has been relaxed, allowing for a smoother, more fluid performance, but sacrificing the percussive element to some degree. There seems to be less attempt at choral "effects," which provide both interest and distraction, in favor of more concentration on the overall shape of long sections and on greater continuity. Professor Forbes' conducting is more precise and less energetic than his predecessor's, but there doesn't seem to be any less spirit.

It was just this quality of enthusiasm and interest, on the part of both groups, which made the concert so satisfying for the audience. The singers were at their very best in songs which are familiar, performing them with a combination of vigor and perfection which fully realized the qualities which make these songs, from "Men of Harlech" to "Bulldog! Bulldog! "so popular and appealing. They were worth doing, and they were certainly done well.