... a letter

Dear Sir,—In the last issue of Salient Mr. Bogle reported on the activities of the Glee Club this year. In the course of his account he referred to me as a Bachelor of Music. I would like it to be known that however stodgy and pedantic I may appear to Mr. Bogle, I have not, in my own opinion, attained to the degree of those qualities which Mr. Bogle might reasonably expect of a Bachelor of Music.

In the same report he complained that in the Glee Club's activity this year there was "not enough glee." Now Mr. Bogle is entitled to take a secondary and corrupted meaning of an old English word from the dictionary if he insists. But I have always considered that the V.U.C. Glee Club, like Its prototypes (in aim) at Universities in other parts of the world was so named in the primary and correct sense of the word. i.e., a club for the performance of "glees," which are "musical composition for three or more voices ... set to words grave or gay . . . and properly without accompaniment."

And taking "glee" in this sense, Mr. Bogle is correct. There was not nearly enough. Members of the V.U.C. Glee Club should have been able to master at the end of their session somewhat more than the few bars of simple Bach they did partially master.

In the other sense, too, Mr. Bogle was of course correct. There was not enough pleasure either. I found little myself in battling against the difficulties created by members who. It seemed, had to be taught the same notes week after week as if they had not seen them before, and whose attendances produced a different combination of voices at each rehearsal.

Nevertheless I have enjoyed slave-driving the Glee Club for the occasional moments when they rewarded me with some real music, which was all I wanted from them. If all they had really wanted was what Mr. Bogle assumes to be the real meaning of Glee I think they would have walked out in greater numbers than they actually did.

P.S.—Urgent Appeal. All copies of the Peasant Cantata, must be returned to me at once. The following have not yet handed theirs in: Misses M. Cully, R. Watt, S. Levissohn, N. Casey, J. McMulIan, P. Michael, J. Benstead, Mrs. C. Scott, Mr. I. Ting.