GLEE CLUB WILL SING ST. MATTHEW PASSION IN TODAY'S CONCERT

Fresh from yesterday's successful four hour performance, the Harvard Glee Club, 128 strong, will combine with the Radcliffe Choral Society and the Boston Symphony Orchestra this afternoon and evening for its second presentation of Bach's renowned "St. Matthew Passion." Dr. Serge Koussevitzky will conduct.

The concert, which climaxes a year of intensive training under G. Wallace Woodworth '24, instructor in Music, will begin at 5 o'clock. Because of the unusual length of the masterpiece, the second half will be sung at 8.30 o'clock after an intermission.

Greatest Creation of Kind

Proclaimed by critics as the greatest creation of its kind, comparable only to the famous B Minor Mass, the "St. Matthew Passion" is a musical drama which has been described as "the deepest expression of devotional feeling that the art of music affords."

Its purpose is to portray the story of the Crucifixion as related in the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapters 26 and 27. This aim it achieves without the benefit of scenery, costumes, or dramatic action.

Although lost to the world for a period of 100 years, the priceless masterpiece was re-introduced by Mendelssohn at a concert in Berlin in 1829, precisely a century after its initial performance by Bach.

Eight Separate Voices

In Structure it is a polyphonic composition, in which eight separate voices combine with the orchestra in simultaneous performance of varying melodic or rhythmic patterns. there are occasions on which the first and second sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses may be required to sing eight different melodies in simultaneous harmony with the instruments.

Tickets for either concert may be secured at the box office for $3.50, $3, $2.50, and $1.50 (no tax).