MUSIC FOR THE MASSES

To the Editors of The CRIMSON:

As a senior who has fulfilled the concentration requirements in English, I had hoped during my last year at Harvard to be able to include in my schedule one or two courses in Music. Having taken Music I as a Freshman, I searched the catalogue for less general courses, suitable for the non-concentrator, in individual composers or periods. There are none. Furthermore, during the last two years the range of such courses offered by the department has narrowed considerably. Such regularly given and quite popular courses as "The Symphony from Haydn to Piston" and "The String Quartets of Beethoven" are no longer available and apparently no step has been taken to give others in their place.

In a college of Harvard's size this seems a remarkable and very lamentable situation. In a comparable field the Fine Arts Department is able to offer an impressive list of courses from which the non-concentrator may choose without being at a disadvantage from lack of technical knowledge. If the great popularity of Music I is any criterion, there are many undergraduates like myself who are eager to pursue further their interest in more specific fields of music, as they have every chance of doing in Fine Arts.

The courses which the Music Department has seen fit to offer the undergraduate in recent years have, I believe, been very well attended. Even these few have now passed out of the catalogue and the gap which remains is unfortunate, to say the least, for all concerned. Hugh Van Dusen '56