Music for the Masses

There will be no hard decisions in store for the student who wants to take a course in music next term. The Music Department has thoughtfully provided him with a choice of one. Along with Music 1, this brings the grand total for the year of one and a half courses in the department open without prerequisite to the non-concentrator.

At one time the Music Department offered several courses in music literature which were very popular with non-concentrators and auditors. In the past few years, the number of these courses has decreased until now, when it has apparently reached rock-bottom. The Department caters almost exclusively to the concentrator, offering a large number of theory courses which are too specialized to be of general interest.

In a liberal arts college, it is particularly distressing to find a field such as music shutting out, to a greater and greater extent, the general student in the interests of the concentrators. If a choice must be made, a broad education for all students should be of more concern than the more vocational problems of the concentrators. Ideally, the department should be able to supply these general courses without doing it at the expense of the concentrators. Presumably, many of them would welcome the addition of courses in the history and literature area, in which they only have three and a half courses available.

There is a large group of students at Harvard who have a general background in music, and who would benefit from upper-level courses which do not require two courses in harmony. There is also an annual body of Music 1 alumni who want to go on in music without concentrating. Not all of them are free Mondays at 11:00, but this is the only time the Music Department will accommodate them this spring.

The increase this fall of students enrolled in Music 1 indicates a growing interest in music in the student body. The Music Department should respond to this interest by offering next year more courses in individual composers, periods, and forms which have formerly met with such success.