IN THE FIELD OF THE ARTS

Elsewhere in today's CRIMSON appears the comment of a Yale student columnist on the attitude of undergraduates towards music in New Haven. His facts and the conclusions he draws from them are surely significant and could probably be applied to Harvard as well as Yale. An unprejudiced observer could hardly help noticing the interest in music at Harvard as shown by the increasing number of non jazz records bought around the Square, the tremendous overapplication for tickets to the Boston Symphony concerts in Sanders theatre, as well as the number of men taking courses in the music department.

By far the two most popular courses offered undergraduates by the Music Department are Music 3 and 4. Both of these courses are so planned as to be of interest to men with either a slight knowledge of music or none at all, but unfortunately they are both restricted in numbers. This restriction, especially since men below a certain academic standing, are the ones discriminated against, is unfortunate in view of the increasing number of men interested in the music. Mechanically an increase in numbers could readily be taken care of by having an extra assistant in each course, and any danger of their being crowded with men who considered them as "snaps"--as they are reputed to be at present--could be avoided by raising the standards of required work.

The fact that large courses in the field of the arts can in fact be successfully conducted is amply proved by Fine Art Ic and Id, elementary courses without entrance requirements which are popular and at the same time maintain a high academic standard, and there is no reason why Music 3 and 4 could not profit from the example set by these courses.