The show turned out to be a fine one, as the Band did one of its cleverest formations--a bottle pouring into a cocktail glass the word "Hic."

Although many feel that the Band should march on, play the music for which it is so popular, then march off, the Band continues to present half-time shows, forming objects and words. The drillmaster is the man who must each week dream up formations to please the crowd. All presentations are approved by the athletic department in advance, but the Band always tries to include as much on the risque side as possible.

A Boston sportwriter once said that the Band's word formations at Fenway Park looked like a "lino-typist's nightmare," but the Band usually seems to put on an orderly presentation for the football crowds. A sign of progress was seen in 1957 when it had grown enough through the years to be able to spell Y-O-V-I-C-S-I-N, even with dotting the I's

First and foremost the Harvard Band is music. It can delight a Sym phony Hall audience or make the home stands rise with cheers to the strains of "Harvardiana." No band plays music quite as well. Whether it's the right choice of medleys, the special balance of the brasses, or something quite technical doesn't really matter. The Harvard Band has that something which makes the fight songs enthusiastic, the marches sharp, and the show tunes lively.

Its members wander out on the concert stage, may say a few words to each other, sometimes hiss when the student conductor takes the baton, and generally have a good time as they play. This informality and independence is typical of the organization.

The 150 or 175 marching members of the gridiron Band bring a touch of the quality and brilliance of the concert stage to the football stadium. The songs are always apt to the occasion: "Where, Oh Where Has My Little Doggie Gone?" as Yale nears defeat; "There's Something About a Soldier" as Army rolls over Harvard; "Ten Little Indians" as Dartmouth takes the field; or "Yankee Doodle" as New York meets Boston at Fenway Park.

Band Fosters Music Groups

The Band also has many extra-curricular facets within it. Not only are are people with varied talents needed to run such an organization, but the Band fosters certain musical groups among its members. In addition to a chamber music group, to be started this fall, there is the Hungry Five, which plays German beer music "for parties, picnics, parades, weddings, wakes, grape-crushings, or keg-tappings."

A fine old institution is "Schneider's Band," a motley crew that plays at various girls colleges or wherever a beer keg is found. There actually was a Professor Schneider at Harvard, Band members will tell you, and Johann Wolfgang Schneider's Silver Cornet Band was "perpetrated in 1807." The present band is the descendant of that group.

The Harvard University Band has had an impressive and colorful history. T. Carter Hagaman '60, energetic and ambitious manager of the Band, says that the future promises to be just as exciting. The Band members, like Hagaman, seem to realize its novel responsibility to the University and to the music public. Because of this responsibility, many, including some in the Band, would like to eliminate the Band's joie de vivre and its occasional use of off-color humor. Others argue that the atmosphere of fun and humor in the Harvard Band gives it its inimitable character.

Generally, the Band members are a conscientious lot. They are certainly loyal and enthusiastic towards Harvard. Probably, as Hagaman contends, the independent Band has the same aims that University Hall would have if it controlled the Band.

The Band has its troubles, make no doubt about it. Section 35 is too small; the Dean's Office has its complaints; there aren't enough tubas to go around; and chronic financial troubles curtail more ambitious projects. Each year the Band swears it can never finish the football season, but it unfailingly does.

You can get odds that whatever the score, the Harvard Band wins. The New Yorker, usually not given to hyperbole, has called it "the best in the businss." Harvard men are willing to buy that. The Band always wins, and it has been piling up the score for 40 years.

Fireman Plays with Band

Many people who see the Band at the football games or concerts wonder about "the gray-haired man who plays trumpet." He is Paul A. Touchette, a member of the Cambridge Fire Department; he is not only a bonefiede member of the Band but also its only honorary lifetime concert master. In the forties Cambridge firemen occasionally played with the Harvard Band, but only Touchette has remained.

The Lieutenant in the Fire Department, although a graduate of no college, marches at all football games and participates in all Band functions. Years ago Touchette's son was a mascot for the Band and one of the protectors of the big bass drum. Now Paul E. Touchette '60 is an undergraduate member of the Harvard University Band