(The Crimson invites all men in the University to submit signed communications of timely interest. It assumes no responsibility, however, for sentiments expressed under this head and reserves the right to exclude any whose publication would be palpably inappropriate.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON

I have been greatly interested in your recent editorials regarding The Harvard Glee Club, and in your contention that, with its present program of study and performance, its name is misleading.

One of the things taught in Philosophy C is the necessity of accurately defining terms. What is a Glee Club? Presumably, it is a club that sings glees. What is a glee? Webster defines it as a composition of English origin, for three or more solo voices, in two sections, and accompanied. The music need not be of a gleesome style. Modern custom uses such numbers as Morley's "My bonnie lazz" and "Now is the month of Maying" it clearly is entitled to the name, Glee Club; moreover, I venture the assertion that the Harvard organization is the only college singing club that uses such compositions, and hence, it is the only one that rightly can be called a Glee Club.

The Princeton criticism that prospective students, musically inclined, might be prejudiced against Harvard University because of the high standard attained by its singers, contains a valuable hint for other branches of science.

A high school graduate is interested in Astronomy, but on learning that he must differentiate between Azimuth and Right Ascension, between Declination and Altitude, he concludes that the standard in astronomy at Harvard, is too high, and he goes elsewhere. Another youth finds pleasure in the Canterbury Tales, but discovers that at Harvard, a course of study in the Anglo-Saxon language is necessary for a thorough knowledge of Chaucer. He likewise goes elsewhere.

The absurdity of such reasoning is seen at a glance, but when he approaches the study of choral music, the subject must be brought down to his standard. Such reasoning is the result of the popular idea that the sole purpose of music is to arouse pleasant sensations through the auditory nerves, or to excite the risibilities by combination of silly words and puerile tunes. Against such an amateurish conception of a great and noble art, I, as a professional musician, emphatically protest, and I maintain that the efforts of a Harvard organization to place before the undergraduates a standard in the science of music, commensurate with the standards in other sciences, are worthy of the highest praise, and of the warmest support.

It will interest our Princeton friend to learn that after the recent concert in St. Louis, the President of the Local Harvard Club wrote to President Lowell that the Glee Club concert was the greatest advertisement that Harvard had ever received, especially when compared with the combination of jazz and booze presented by other college glee clubs.

I once heard a concert by the Cornell Glee Club in which the principle number was a vocal gem entitled "Mrs. Cosy's Boarding House." Imagine a great institution of learning sending out a professor of English literature to give readings from the works of Mary Jane Holmes!

Dr. Davison has begun a movement which bids fair to revolutionize the entire practice and plan of college vocal organizations. The public has been quick to recognize the value of his work, and it soon will be in order for other colleges to re adjust their ideas of what can be accomplished in the practice of music when the same serious study is given to it that is required in other sciences. James K. Bagley, Sp.