The large majority of musicians have never been able to make a living out of their compositions, and have therefore had to teach their art to others. Some of them liked it, but most of them moaned about it. Gabriel Faure was in the former group, and a list of his pupils looks like a register of modern French musicians.

The Music 1 student who knows this and remembers that Faure's creative activity spanned the period from 1863 to 1924 will imagine himself as able to place the composer with some accuracy. And perhaps he may ask why the Music Department ha gone to so much bother and expense to celebrate a Faure centennial.

What is to the point, however, is that the student will be wrong. Faure's music has an individuality of communication, an absence of pompous hokum and fraud which makes it highly valuable in these and days. It is wholly charming and completely sincere.

The main characteristic of Faure is a self-contained and well-controlled lyricism which overflows from the minor works into his few large orchestral pieces. Usually, the content deals with a highly individual and somewhat unemotional experience, as contrasted with the generalized, synthetic experiences of most late Romanticism. Despite evident overwriting for the woodwinds in relleas at Melisande and ineffective use of both violin and 'cello in the Trio opus 120, his themes are well handled.

Faure as a composer has been almost unknown in this country, and therefore, irrespective of the competitive merits of the works chosen and disregarding serious defects in performance, the Music Department earns appreciation for time and money spent. It was worth doing.

The present performances have skirted the edge of adequate. The "members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra" played rather abominably for Nadia Boulanger Tuesday night, with an unnamed trumpet committing murder upon Piston's fine orchestration of Funerailles de Pandore.

In the "big" work of the Festival, the Requiem, there were several bad moments which threatened to wreck the best rehearsed and directed performance of the series. As soprano soloist, Marika Kapravy had a voice like a reed, and was quite incapable of the richness desired in the Pie Jesu. What she had, however, she used perfectly.

Paul Matthen is another case entirely. He failed consciously to try for anything over F sharp, and missed several notes under E, constantly attempting to find the correct pitch, which kept eluding him by inches. The tenors did not sound right, but I have since been informed that they were incorrectly placed in the Church. Sopranos, contraltos, and basses came through beautifully under superb direction to carry the day, however, and to make the performance memorable.

It was rather trying to watch Melville Smith playing the piano perfectly in the Trio opus 120 while Lauga and Zighera sawed away happily, playing the right notes without any idea as to why they were there

Ruth Posselt, in the Sonata opus 108, flung herself into the music (endangering the limbs of the 30 people sitting on the stage), turned the first movement conflict into one hell of a brawl, handied rhythmical complexities with fine spirit, and, despite an occasional aggravating tremolo and an E string that was always about to roll over and die, gave a satisfying and exciting performance of the piece.

Last night's concert rose from baseness in the weak, Romantic first piano quintet to high power in the second. In the intermediary phase, Olympia di Napoli, superbly accompanied by Miss Boulanger, used her middle and lower registers to great effect in the rendition of a group of songs.

In general, what credit is earned for the performances goes to Nadia Boulager, whose work and fine direction shone all over the Festival. There was little she could do about the weak points, and it seems like a sensible course to hear Penelope tonight; there have been four more days in which to rehearse. pro