"Artistic Aspect" and "Utilitarian Purpose"

The concert of the Harvard Glee Club in New York was a far cry from the traditional musical club events of the past, with their comic glees and their tinkling mandolins. The Harvard club sang a most taxing program, running from unaccompanied music of the early Roman Church down through the best music of the Romanticists and the moderns. The singing of the club was a revelation in male chorus work--equal, in fact, to any male chorus singing by amateurs that the writer has ever heard. What is more, the approval of the audience for the singing of the club was almost ecstatic. One Princetonian declared afterwards to Dr. Archibald T. Davison, director of the club: "Well, the glee club championship goes to Harvard."

Aside from the artistic aspects, college musical clubs have a utilitarian purpose, namely, they help to interest in the colleges that they represent, young lads who may be prospective undergraduates, or young girls who may have some weight in determining the choice of college for those lads. Such interest is created by the club's depicting the older musical side of college life. It is not to be denied that such a concert as the Harvard Glee Club is now giving might cause the ordinary schoolboy to flee in utter boredom. Moreover, even his sister might not be intrigued by such a serious program, unless her musical up-bringing had been of the best. However, in the case of Princeton the Triangle Club with its many tours has long been carrying the message of Princeton musically, just as our athletic teams have won a following for the University by their records of physical prowess.

After all, however, we must admit that, despite the influence of these agencies in drawing students to a university, such activities are only a supplementary part of what the university has to offer. The things which it chiefly offers are intellectual things, and, the musical mastery and artistic precision exhibited by the Harvard Glee Club form an exhibit which is fit to rank with some of the best intellectual products of college life today. K. S. CLARK,   In Princeton Alumni Weekly.