The University Band has been suffering a singular privation for several months. It was learned yesterday that the downpour which ruined so many objects at the Harvard-Yale football game last fall was the cause of reducing the musical scores from which the band was attempting to play to a condition of illegibility, and in some cases of disintegration.

At the time, the loss was overshadowed, but when the sodden musicians returned to Cambridge, to their consternation they learned that the only copies which existed of certain Harvard songs, arranged for the band, were missing. Since then, the greatest difficulty has been encountered in replacing the missing parts. In some instances, parts have been available from music publishers, but in the majority of cases, the missing parts are still lacking.

The extraordinary fact that only one copy of Harvard songs should exist in Harvard itself is explained by the nature of the orchestrations. The songs whose parts are lost are harmonized in keys which make them adaptable to both vocal and instrumental interpretation. The harmony itself, furthermore, is not of a wholly orchestral character: hence the difficulty in replacing the parts. No band scores have been made of some of the selections, and still others are out of print.

As new orchestrations are being made of certain of the songs, notably the "Marseilles", and as the other missing parts are being reconstructed, it is expected that the repertoire of the band will soon be complete. It is probable, needless to say, that more than one copy will be made of each reconstructed part.