Music for the Masses

For years the earnest masses of Music I have slurped mustard on Milhaud as they tried to cram the week's listening assignment into a lunch hour whiled away in the dank Paine Hall basement. Neither their appetite for ham nor their taste for the good Frenchman was aroused; snatching idle moments through the day to study for a full course in Harvard College often seemed a hopeless exercise. Certain hours became more popular than others, often the room was overcrowded and the listening time seemed restrictive. With a music library promised for Autmun, and a Lamont record collection at least projected, it now seems propitious to reconsider ways of allowing students to make a realistic survey of Music I's assignments.

The traditional problem for listeners stems from the custom of shuttering Paine Hall at 5 p.m. During regular office hours, every one of Music I's 300-odd students is quite welcome. From 5 p.m. to 9 a.m., only Paine Hall's 300-odd little mice can play. WHRB broadcasts assignments twice a week, attempting as best it can to fit the records into a limited program. Listening at a specific time, either in a gloomy cellar or at a gastronomically annoying hour, however, offers little stimulus to keep pace with assignments. Commuters, excluded from WHRB's many watts, are further burdened, particularly if they have both morning classes and afternoon labs.

Several solutions have been proposed. The obvious one, of course, is to hire a janitor to lock Paine's doors at 10 p.m., shortening rodent festivities by five hours. The Music Department, however, has held this arrangement financially undesirable.

Another suggestion involves a complete supplementary library of assignments held on reserve in Lamont. This collection, Librarian Philip J. McNiff understandably feels, would be the responsibility and the expense of the Music Department itself. If Lamont did establish a Music I record library, it would provide freshmen with their first opportunity to borrow College records for private use. House libraries are useful for Music I only in varying degrees, depending on the whim of library committees.

The third and probably most comprehensive answer lies in the music library building now under construction. All of the Department's Widener collection, as well as the material which is stuffed in cabinets and crannies at Paine Hall, will be co-ordinated in the new building. Apparently, the Music I assignment records, along with the curious machines that make them sing, will also be moved. The closing hour has yet to be fixed, and it has not been determined whether or not records will be available for overnight loan.

In order of preference, the final suggestion--records at the new music library available until 10 p.m. and for outside use overnight--seems best. Because a music librarian will be in attendance anyway, the additional expense should be negligible. The plight of the student unable to fit his schedule into the workings of the business days is a serious one. Expenses or not, the records should be made available painlessly and within more liberal hours.