Neither Rome nor the Pierian Sodality, alias the Harvard Orchestral Society, was built overnight. At least, that's what Milton Van Dyke, the Secretary, sagely remarked the other day when the called attention to the fact that this year marked the 135th anniversary of the Orchestra.

"A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."

seems to have made an impression on six young Yardlings who formed the society on March 6, 1808 "for their mutual improvement in instrumental music." But the gigantic number of six was not to be the steady diet of the society which, in the forlorn year of 1832, dropped to a single member, a faithful and unsung flutist, who managed to graduate from the University, practice, and keep enough of the Society's records intact to preserve its title of being the oldest orchestra in the United States.

Exactly what the Society fed on for the first few years of its perilous existence is still somewhat of a mystery because the first mention of music performed is in 1810, Handel's Air." The following year the Pierian anticipated playing Handel's "Waterpiece" at Commencement, but "the member who plays the 2nd Clarionett having a sore jaw, occasioned by the Extraction of a tooth, it was judged necessary to apologize to the Seniors and decline playing." The following year, however, a brilliant comeback was staged when its first concert was performed.

By 1871, the orchestra had assumed symphonic proportions, and today averages about 40 players. It has always been fairly active, in 1833 organizing the ancestor of today's Glee Club, and in 1837 forming the Harvard Musical Association, which were directly concerned with the formation of the Boston Symphony.

There is a striking difference between the calm announcement of a Bowdoin Concert on March 21, 1943 or the smoothly run rehearsals of twice a week with the report of the meeting of March 30, 1857: "Met, practiced, liquored, and adjourned."