Advertisement

ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS

The latch string obligato at the organ recital yesterday afternoon has left many persons with a distinct distaste for Harvard concerts manners. Five o'clock in the afternoon is late enough so that most of the audience should not be prevented by academic activities from prompt arrival. Other occupations may actually detain a few but the large majority at these recitals owe a discourteous and noisy tardiness to nothing more serious than pre-prandial intertia.

Besides those undetained by actuality there is the class of persons who have a valid reason for a delayed arrival at these twilight recitals. At slight hardship to this more worthy class but for great benefit to the meticulously prompt, a more rigid system of ushering seems advisable. Under the present regulations a person is allowed admittance to the main auditorium as soon as he arrives within the outer gate, no matter what is going on inside. As a consequence, the first half hour of the recital is accompanied be the incessant rattling of an archal lock and the resulting removal of outer garments.

More formal concerts have a role that no person shall enter the concert hall during the progress of a given piece of music. The fact that the time and place are such as to cast a general flavor of informality over the organ recitals in Appleton Chapel is no excuse for yesterday's catch-as-catch-can type of entry. There is always at least one usher at these musicals for the purpose of dispensing programs. His duties might well be extended to include the detaining of late comers without the door until the number being played at the time of their arrival is concluded.

Advertisement
Advertisement