The Critic at Harvard

The serious student musical groups at Harvard exist mainly for their members and only secondarily for their audience. The purpose of these groups--orchestras, choirs, chamber ensembles, and the like--is to give their players and singers a first-hand look at fine music, to help them develop musical ability and enjoyment, and to give performances in which both the audience and the players can learn and take pleasure.

Any musical performance has its shortcomings, and such amateur efforts are likely to have an ample share. The critic must understand these organizations--along with the nature of their task--well enough to know their potential and their handicaps. Then he must judge the actual performance against what he thinks is possible from such a group, and defend his conclusion convincingly.

The greatest accomplishment of any student group is to provide an opportunity for the individual to increase his musical sensitivities, gain technical skill, and learn from group interaction while playing good music.

He can either sing or play for the sheer pleasure of it, or he can concentrate on exploring and developing his responsiveness in musical expression. In addition, he may gain valuable experience in preparation for a profession in music, learning, for example, that violins gradually get sharp as a concert progresses, while the brasses gradually become flat, and that the players must compensate for this.

A college musical group will probably try to explore the range of music as far as possible, coming into contact with different types of music by different composers of different temperaments in different periods. It might also present music which is worth while though not popular or well-known. Such variety makes the music more valuable to play and more interesting to hear. But it also creates problems of execution and interpretation which the critic should realize, and with which he should sympathize.

The most serious problem of a student musical group is the limited technical ability of its members. Amateur players cannot be consistently at their best. It is especially difficult for students to maintain high musical standards because of the time required, and the mental and emotional exertion it demands. Practice takes time and it takes work.

It is obviously difficult to evaluate a student performance. Everyone knows that the finest musical moments take place in rehearsals, and not on concert night. And most of the originality in student performances is what is new only to the students, and not to history. Also, the interpretation of the music cannot but be immature in some ways.

The critic, then, must understand is involved in the preparation of dent performance. He must know limitations and difficulties of music with amateur players or . He must know the complications organization and management have to be overcome by students not have the equipment or of professionals. The critic must understand the purposes and policies involved, such as the decision to great work imperfectly rather than successfully perform an easy show.

Strict professional standards be used to criticize a student groups. Yet, there is little to them, other than a kind of inform compassionate rationality. They should judge on the basis of what , taking into account the difficult encountered by the groups and leaders. Then, although he too problem of how to make the statements of one who is honestly , the student critic should detachment and breath which and performer a valuable on their response to the the performance.

(GERALD O. GROW '64 is of the Harvard-Radcliffe . He has played the clarinet Society Orchestra, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and in chamber groups.)

Strict professional standards be used to criticize a student groups. Yet, there is little to them, other than a kind of inform compassionate rationality. They should judge on the basis of what , taking into account the difficult encountered by the groups and leaders. Then, although he too problem of how to make the statements of one who is honestly , the student critic should detachment and breath which and performer a valuable on their response to the the performance.

(GERALD O. GROW '64 is of the Harvard-Radcliffe . He has played the clarinet Society Orchestra, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and in chamber groups.)

(GERALD O. GROW '64 is of the Harvard-Radcliffe . He has played the clarinet Society Orchestra, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and in chamber groups.)