Rules and Regulations Set to Music; Booklet Becomes Baroque Oratorio

Someone has finally realized the lyric possibilities of the Harvard rules and regulations book.

Normally buried beneath a mound of pencil shavings and paper clips in the recesses of a desk drawer, the little black and white pamphlet has furnished a Harvard composer with the storyline for a suitably baroque oratorio.

"The aim of the work is to poke mild fun at the bombast of the rules, and to highlight their potential absurdity," explains composer Robert Levin '68.

"When chorus intones a line like 'No student may keep an animal, bird, or reptile in a college building,' splitting the syllables of 'reptile' with a luxurious, slithering trill, it's hard to miss the silliness of it all."

Only Fifteen Minutes

Levin's composition lasts only fifteen minutes, but the gravity of the mood is maintained by such ominous lines as "No student shall play ball or noisy games in the yard, in corridors, or on grounds immediately adjacent to a college building;" or "No singing shall be allowed." The latter is assertively sung by two sopranos.

"I've patterned the oratorio on the styles of Bach and Handel," Levin says. "And I've tried to keep it patently baroque."

Levin wrote the oratorio last spring, and had it performed at the Signet Society in May. He is now scouting the University for a group of singers to present the work for a wider audience sometime after Thanksgiving.

A music major, Levin studied at the Paris Conservatory for six summers, and won the HRO concerto contest in his freshman year.