Bach Choir Makes Debut Saturday Beside Infant Chamber Orchestra

Newest member of the University's musical family--already numbering band, glee club, and the Pierish Sodality's full scale orchestra about its fireside--the Bach Choir will make its debut as part of a concert by the Music Club's chamber orchestra Saturday night at 8:30 o'clock in Sanders Theatre.

Father of the 25-voice mixed choir is Thomas B. Dunn 1G, who is studying choral music here and has been choirmaster and organist at the Cathedral of Incarnation in Baltimore.

Dunn laid his first plans for the group back in October of last year and since then has built up a repertoire of three complete cantatas. "We have not attempted any of Bach's masses or oratories," says Dunn, "and probably will leave them for larger and more professional choruses." With 213 of the cantatas still untouched, the organization has no fears for its future.

"Come, Thou Lovely. . . "

The first piece to be sung publicly by the choir will be "Come, Thou Lovely Hour of Dying," Bach's one hundred sixty-first cantata. Geraldine Viti, formerly an alto with the San Francisco Opera Company, will journey up from New York City to do sole work in Saturday's concert along with George A. Maran '48.

Performances in a local church April 20 and in Memorial Church the following Sunday are already on the choir's spring agenda, with the twenty-ninth cantata, "We Thank Thee God," and the thirty-ninth, "Brich dem Humgrigen dein Brot," ready for airing.

Under the baton of Irving G. Fine '37, assistant professor of Music and adviser to the Music Club, the club's chamber orchestra will be going through the third performance of its brief career at Saturday's concert.

To Fill The Gap

The 37-year old Music Club conceived its chamber orchestra, a pocket sized edition of the familiar symphony orchestra, this year to fill what club president Noel D. Lee '46 calls "a musical void at Harvard."

Between the wars the Club went its informal way reaching peaks of furious activity when it numbered men like Virgil Thomson '22 and Leonard Bernstein '39 in its midst and at other times lapsing into sociable lethargy. For a while many of the meetings were held in the home of Edward Ballantine '07, associate professor of Music and then moving spirit of the club.

The sisterly Radcliffe Music Club carried the ball during the war until enough soldiers came home to put the Harvard club on a sound and active footing. Under President Lee, the combined group took a formal turn with regular monthly meetings held in the Music Building and marked by the presence of some of Boston's leading musicians and the absence of beer and sofas.

Sponsor House Concerts

Members of the Club have presented 18 concerts in the houses this year and have scheduled 11 more before the end of the term. In addition to the orchestra Fine and Leo organized this year, the Club operates a year-old choral group.

The chamber orchestra closely approximates in size the orchestra for which Bach originally wrote. Saturday's performance will feature the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, with David Allen of Boston at the piano, Clarence Taylor '49 on the flute, and Sarah Cunningham 1G of Radcliffe on the violin.

Also on the program are Bach's Concerto in C Major for two pianos, played by Douglas P. Allanbrook '48 and Paul E. des Marais '49, and his concerto in D Minor for two violins, handled by Maxwell M. Harvey '44 and Robert F. Ritzenhein 2G, as well as the Bach Choir's rendition of Cantata Number 161.