Finding Their Voices - Amherst College

chorus pieces by Mendelssohn, as well as his own composition entitled “Domine, fac
salvum Presidem,” written in honor of President Hill’s appointment. This gesture surely
won him no ill-favor. One of Hill’s first moves as president was to institute an “extended
course of lectures” in much the same vein as Amherst’s lecture course on the fine arts.
Paine was included among these lecturers, giving four lectures on Musical Form in June.
Although these lectures were not offered for academic credit, they may represent the first
time such material was ever taught at a men’s institution. These lectures continued the
next fall, with the topic “Instruction in Counterpoint and Fugue,” which Paine taught
every Saturday, beginning on 15 October 1863. In a retrospective work, Walter R.
Spalding, Paine’s eventual successor, dryly commented: “To some unknown
administrative genius owes the pious deception by which instruction in counterpoint and
fugue was smuggled into the scheme of university lectures.” 154
In the meantime, Homer’s course on vocal music had been expanded into a threeyear
course. Paine was now to teach “lessons in elementary music and vocalization” to
interested Freshmen, “part singing, reading at sight and vocalization” to Sophomores, and
“practice in sacred music, with reference to the services in the Chapel,” offered to Juniors
and Seniors if they were members of the Chapel Choir. The choir posed special problems
to Paine. Whereas it had been composed of around 25 members in the 1861-62 school
year, by the fall of 1862 it had dropped to just 9 members. Some of this drop may have
been due simply to a feeling of loyalty to Homer, but some, at least, was due to Paine’s
stricter policies towards attendance and conduct. Regardless, the sudden drop in
membership posed a threat to his employment, as ensuring quality singing by the choir
was one of his primary duties. In an attempt to remedy the situation, Paine allowed for
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154 Spalding, Music at Harvard, 160.
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