From Pierian Sodality Serenading the Ladies For Fun-and Credit To Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra

(The author is a Radcliffe junior and a member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.)

"Sanders was jammed for the concert, and I am sure that part of what the audience enjoyed so much was the rare sight of an orchestra that looked as though to play Schoenberg and Beethoven was an utterly consuming challenge and really the only important thing in the world at that moment."

Thus Michael Steinberg, music critic for the Boston Globe, described the Harvard-Radflifle Orchestra at the December 13, 1968 concert when the orchestra joined forces with the Glee Club and the Harvard-Radflifle Chorus to perform Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Schocnberg's Survivor From Warsaw. . It is certainly the challenge and musical excitement that brings people in HRO together. The organization is completely voluntary. Only two of the members are music concentrators, the rest being of every field from Biochemistry to Classics. Although heavily committed to their own fields, members are willing to put in about 30 hours of rehearsal for each concert-five concerts per year. Dr. Yannatos, conductor of the orchestra, says, "One never knows' music unless one has a physical involvement with it." It is the desire to become completely involved with music, to perform music well, that enables people of such diverse backgrounds and interests to work harmoniously together.

The intent of this musical organization was not always so serious. The Pierian Sodality (HRO's formal name) claims to be the oldest continuing musical organization in the United States. It was founded in 1808:

Blest be the Muses who up-reared this band, Blet be the men who lend a willing hand, Blest be its members whom its laws command, And damn's be all others who would its cause withstand.

The main purpose of the original Pierian Sodality seems to have been to serenade young ladies in the Boston vicinity. One Pierian remembers, the balmy nights of early summer. . . wherever. . . dwelt celebrated belles, [were] interrupted by the delicate strains of the little group of players, who found a sufficient reward in the sound of a window raised, a blind thrown open or any other indication that the sleepers were alert. The recollection of every one who took part in them and supply him with abundant incidents of these romantic excursions, oftentimes sufficiently amusing, such as the wishing of the tender strains at the wrong house ?? where once the leader, not familiar with the ?? and drew up the band before the gun room instead of the commander's quarters, or upon the cars of servant maids when the ?? where away the encountering of another company of sereners as once happened in Brookline where the jealous late comers diverted themselves in Brookline with the carriage and horses of the rivals.

The way in which the Pierians wrote up their expeditions was not any less romantic: June 2?, 184?. It came to pass in the reign of Simon the King, that the Pierians did meet in the tabernacle. And ?? a voice was heard saying. Let us go serenading-and they lifted up their voice as one man and they said. Let its go. And behold we went to the city of the Philistines, and did serenade their daughters, and came home about the third hour. And the game of the Pieriuns did was exceeding great, and did reach at the places round about Cambridge.

Besides disturbing the "balmy nights of early summer." the Pierians would also play at various college events. Perhaps the greatest crisis in the sodality's history came in 1854 when for reasons to completely clear (the college administer sudden unfavorable attitude toward the group of departing sector, there was only one member left in the Sodality. Would the company tradition be broken? Would the ?? Sodality cease to be? Fortunately due to the perseverance of the renowned and able Harry Gassette all was not doomed:

He was an ??. . . . and he played the flute. When in 1??2 complains about the Society's night music led to an official request for its disagreement Heary Gassett refused to resign. He held meetings with himself in his chair, paid himself dues regularly, played his flute in solidity. Finally he persuaded another flutist to join in duets. Gradually they elected other members. The Sodality played on.

After this heroic episode the society grew and continued making music. In 1898 the Sodality was referred to by the Boston Herald as the Harvard University Orchestra, but did not itself adopt this name until 1909. The orchestra was not complete until 1942 when it joined the then separate Radcliffe orchestra: "the girls needed basses and the men needed strings." The Harvard Glee Club and the Boston Symphony Orchestra both owe their existence to the Pierian Sodality.

In 162 years the nature of the orchestra has changed enormously. Originally a group for light entertainment, the group is now interested in performing serious, difficult works, and many members feel that the best part of being in HRO is the opportunity to play the more challenging twentieth century repertoire.

The difference between the old and new HRO becomes obvious when one compares the program of an earlier Harvard Club concert (a light overture, a medley of tunes by LeRoy Anderson, Strauss waltzes) with the Harvard Club program of February 22, 1970 (Stravinsky, Hindemith, Etler, Petzel, Hovhaness, Dahl, and Mozart). The orchestra has performed many premieres including the world premiere of a Dellapiecola piece, the New England premiere of the Kirchner plane ??rto (conducted by Kirchner and ??med by Luise Vosgerchian), the New England premiere of Gunter Schuller's Five B?? and premieres of some of Dr. yaks works. HRO and the Glee Club would have performed the American premiere of Kurt Weill's Berlin Requiem at the coming mach concert, but discovered that a major symbol my orchestra has the rights to that premiere.

One function of the orchestra is to provide a means whereby student composers at Harvard may have a chance to hear their works played. Last year the orchestra performed a piece of Gregory Biss, then a graduate student in the music department, and this year the orchestra played through The Bird of Paradise by Leonard Yehrman '71. On March 24, HRO will read a new piece by Faye Silberman, first year graduate in the music department. Another way that the orchestra serves the musical community is by giving students a chance to solo with an orchestra. Every year the orchestra holds a concerto contest. The winner plays on the final spring concert. In 1968 Tonu Kalam '69 played Beethoven's first piano concerto in the May concert. This fall Ron Takvorian performed the second Prokofiev piano concerto.

Although the Pierian Sodality may no longer serenade fair ladies, the members still manage to enjoy themselves. There was the 1962 Mexican tour, 1965 Midwest tour, 1966 Washington, D. C. tour, 1968 Cape Cod concert, and last year's tour with concerts at Georgetown in Washington, D. C., an inaugural concert in the new hall at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, and a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Members of the orchestra will never forget the 12-hour bus ride from Cambridge to Washington ("I'm sorry," they said at the Howard Johnson Restaurant, "We do not serve people from the bus". . . as HROers wandered aimlessly around trying to get more respectable looking people to buy them ice cream cones) which ended with a midnight tour of Washington. D. C. 's monuments, getting lost in Baltimore (driving by the Bromo Seltzer Memorial six times), getting lost on the way to New York City . . .

Jon Berman, the manager, has very vivid memories about driving the truck which held the cellos, basses, and percussion. "That truck was a kind of wonder. I don't remember whether the back door worked or not, but if it did it was the only thing on the truck that did work. The tail-lights were broken, the speedometer was broken. The right front door wouldn't open and it wouldn't close but existed in a state somewhere in between so that the person sitting on the floor next to the door (there was only one seat, behind the steering wheel) got all kinds of dirt blown on to him from the New Jersey Turnpike . . . . When we got to Washington John Mayne backed over the car of some staff-member of Congress . . ."

When HRO and truck arrived in New Yourk City there was nowhere for the truck to stay at night (you can't park anything all nights on the streets) so the truck was just left in front of the Harvard Club and various members stayed up all night watching to see that it wasn't hauled away. Sometimes a policeman would drive down the street, stop and look at the truck, go a little further, stop and look back, drive around the block . . .

One thing that many orchestra members remember with great pleasure was playing in the new auditorium at Johns Hopkins. There was enough room on the stage for the orchestra (both Paine and Sanders are extremely cramped and uncomfortable to play in). The hall was soundproofed so that there were no distractions from outside (sometimes when playing in Sanders it is difficult to compete with the Cambridge fire-station). The acoustics were beautiful. By the end of a rehearsal in Paine most people's cars are blown out. The hall is too small and live for such a large or chestra as HRO. And playing in Sanders is like playing in a barn. Harvard, with its lovely visual studies building. Fogg Museum, and Loeb Drama Center does not have adequate concert facilities. And Harvard might note that Johns Hopkins with its beautiful new hall is not turning into a conservatory.

A perennial problem with the orchestra is lack of money. The University does not support the orchestra. In fact, in order to play in Sanders Theatre the orchestra must pay the University for policemen, light, and heat. HRO has to pay for posters, tickets, rental of instruments, and publicity. The orchestra cannot afford to have its own percussion instruments and therefore must rent from Jack's Drum Shop or borrow from the band. For every rehearsal the percussionist runs back and forth from Sanders carrying timpani, xylophones and miscellaneous other equipment. At best, the orchestra breaks even financially after a concert.

Although the main purpose of the orchestra will continue to be the playing, performing, and enjoying of serious music, Dr. Yannatos is interested in broadening the scope of the orchestra beyond the Harvard community to include the Cambridge community. Perhaps this new direction will involve a series of concerts in the area or perhaps benefit concerts for various local organizations.

Another new development for the HRO is the music department's revolutionary decision to grant academic credit to the orchestra. Next year HRO will be listed in the catalogue as a half course extending throughout the year. The course can be taken for credit only for two years. And naturally it will accept an unlimited number of auditors. In one way this will recognize the five hours per week that members give to the orchestra and will attract more people. In another way this is recognizing the value of practical musical experience and the fact that music was written to be performed and not just studied.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and the Harvard Glee Club will be coming together March 20 to perform a typically difficult and varied program: Josquin, Poulance, Handl, Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex," and the Brahms "Alto Rhapsody." The soloist for the "Rhapsody" is Mildred Miller from the Metropotitan Opera.