Glee Club executives estimate they accept about 15 per cent of the nearly 200 men who audition for the group every September. "Based on the rating the conductor gives the people that are trying out, the executive committee provisionally accepts a certain number of people from this audition pool," Wheadon said. The club then conducts a series of rehearsals and holds quartet trials, where candidates sing with old club members. Based on the second rating by the conductor, the executive committee makes final decisions on the choral hopefuls.

Old members have an edge over candidates in auditions every year. Wheadon said, because it is "necessary to have a base of singers who have been in the group before to work with."

Wheadon belives the group has a fairly good reputation on the professional music circuit. "That was the purpose of our tour--to reintroduce ourselves to old friends, and to get new ones," he said. "I believe the summer tour accomplished that purpose pretty well."

Dr. Loring Conant Jr. '61, president of the Harvard Glee Club Foundation, a 27-year-old organization of Glee Club alumni that provides financial and moral support to Harvard choral music, agreed that the Glee Club has a nationally-acclaimed reputation.

"Lonely Lonely Men of Harvard Set apart from all the rest, Solitary Men of Harvard All because we are the best, the best, the very best, We are indubitably the best."

"Our recordings still stand out as some of the best recordings in the orchestral choral lists," Conant said, adding "One way to gain prestige and exposure is to sing with a national orchestra, and that the Glee Club has succeeded in doing that for many years."

While current members effusively praise the musical blend and tone of the group achieved during the summer, they are hesitant to discuss the quality of the Glee Club sound now. The transition of conductors from Adams to Marvin at the beginning of the school year has left the club unsettled.

Two year ago, the Music Department denied Adams tenure, despite his overwhelming student support. Last spring, Dean Rosovsky established a student search committee composed of members of the Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Collegium Musicum to find a successor to Adams. After narrowing the field and inviting the frontrunners to Cambridge to conduct the three groups, the committee chose Jameson M. Marvin, who was then offered the position by the Music Department. Adams is presently studying conducting in Germany.

Marvin was at a conference of choral directors in St. Louis this weekend and could not be reached for comment.

While many club members declined to comment on the transition, some were willing to discuss the change. "Singing under F. John Adams was the most rewarding thing I did here," George S. Leone '79, who resigned from the group February 10, said. "He had a talent for bringing out the best in singers. We sang that music as well as it could be sung--and we could always tell when we did by John's response on stage," he added.

Club executives estimate 15 people have left the organization since Marvin took over in September. "Statistically, the number is higher than ever," Adam M. Finkel '79, Glee Club secretary, said. "We've personally tried hard to find everyone's reasons for dropping out... We're not in any trouble, though, and we're not hurting for people." Wheadon, however, said the number of dropouts this year is not excessive. "We generally accept a certain number of people keeping in mind that by spring tour we want to have a group of about 50," he explained.

Mark B. Slaughter '80, who was financial manager of the group until he resigned in the fall, said. "I feel we're singing less sophisticated music, less pleasureable music. I feel my time was wasted in the Glee Club. I just wanted to break away."

Dr. Loring Conant Jr. '61, president of the Harvard Glee Club Foundation, pointed out that in any transition process there are casualties. "This has been rougher than any transition period before because Jim [Marvin] is the first conductor hired from outside Harvard," Conant said. "To look at it objectively, Jim is an unwanted guest. If the students had had their choice, they would have kept John Adams. With that background, Jim certainly didn't have a red carpet that was just lush with welcome. It's shame, because he has had a wealth of musical experience."

Mark Oshima '82, a first-year club member, said some older members have had problems adjusting to the new conductor, but said Marvin is "a very good conductor, and he does know his music very well."

Oshima added, "The freshman have been getting along pretty well. There hasn't been as high an attrition rate among the freshmen as there was among the upperclassmen."

"It's not a question in anyone's mind that the quality of music the Glee Club is producing is at least at the same level as in years past," Wheadon said. "Alumni that have heard us this year have remarked that they've been very impressed that the Glee Club can produce such high quality music during what would be expected to be an uneasy period due to the transition."

"I know Jim has done a lot to improve our bad habits of singing under John, but it was never boring to be up there singing under John," Finkel said. "Jim's attitude is a lot more showman-y."

Conant agreed. "There are a lot of choral techniques that are just exciting that Jim is using. I think that when they are applied as a whole, the effect is going to be electifying."

"The Glee Club under Dr. Adams was treated to a series of very ambitious strivings for excellence," Leone said. "It was proud of that, and it's hard to adapt to a conductor with new standards. Marvin doesn't think we can be as good as we have been in the past. Whether he will take advantage of the potentials of the group remains to be seen."

Stan Mayslack will have to wait several years for the club's next U.S. tour to see for himself if the Glee Club is as good under Marvin as it was under Adams. That will give the club plenty of time to practice.