Highbrow Glee Clubs

The New York Evening Post which spends much of its editorial time in the field of college activity came out recently with a denunciation of the "highbrow" drift which had swept away the old college Glee Club. Says the Post. "College boys are not professional singers. The Mendelssohn and other choral societies meet a fine public need. But the undergraduate should not be called upon to live up to their standards of excellence. The under-graduate should express and control his own music just as he should express and control his own football."

The Post here of course makes the assumption that the members of college Glee Clubs have no interest in anything more intricate musically than "Men of Dartmouth." Whether the Post is right or wrong in this assumption, and we believe it wrong, the statement that college singers should not be expected to live up to the standards of excellence of the average choral society calls forth a protest.

In the first place, we have no reason to feel that Glee Club music whether controlled by a student leader or a paid director will automatically become juvenile. The use of complete under-graduate control would quite possibly result in an attempt to produce more musically difficult work than an experienced director would be apt to be apt to use. Secondly, we feel very strongly that the college Glee Club should make every possible efforts to attain the standards of excellence which the Post feels is unnecessary. We do not imply that men should practice night and day, but that within the limits of reasonable practice hours every effort should be made towards a more accurate perfection.

And finally in objection to the Post's feelings about "highbrow" music, we are willing to admit that the programs of the Glee Clubs which we occasionally hear may be of the hybrid nature, calculated to tickle the palate of the lover of purely "college music" as well as that of the listener more interested in tone and technique. If, however, it were to be the sentiment that such hybrid programs should be removed, we would be far more in favor of breeding a pure strain of "highbrow music" than of fostering the tunes which we ourselves may shout in off-color tenors with the morning shave. TheDartmouth