"You can't replace such a person," according to department chairman Christoph Wolff, adding that it was difficult to imagine the department without him.

"He has such a deeply coated connection with Harvard and knows it better than anybody else," Wolff added.

He said that Music 2 will be taken over by Peter Lieberson next year, a new assistant professor and composer. The department hired Lewis Luckwood, a Beethoven scholar, a few years ago partly in anticipation of Forbes's retirement, Wolff said.

"He spreads his enthusiasm all over the classroom. He is dedicated as a teacher and brings out the best in students," Wolff added.

Paul A. Hoffman '85, a Music 12th student, said he enjoyed Forbes's combination of history and analysis.

"Often, when he begins a class, he takes a historical approach, then bam he switches into the analytical made," he said.

Forbes said he took seriously the music department's dual role as training professionals while providing exposure for musicians who go into other fields. "At least they can learn to feel at home with the stuff of music," Forbes said.

Forbes said he plans to remain visible at Harvard and will advise students and work on a book, whose subject he declined to speak about. He also plans to travel.

Forbes graduated from the College in 1941 received his M. A. here in 1947 and then taught at Princeton until 1958, when he returned to Cambridge as professor of music. He was appointed Peabody Professor of Music in 1961 and served as department chairman from 1972 until 1976.

In an earlier Music 2b lecture, Forbes, seated at the piano tried to communicate his excitement for the music, saying "see If you don't share with me a certain wonder."

In talking about the quartet yesterday, he said, "After you listen to the first part, and it's moving and serious, what do you do next? Then the sun comes out.