Finding Their Voices - Amherst College

in the college and relations with musical alumni. It closed with three concrete
resolutions:
1. RESOLVED, That we, the past, present, and Honorary members of the Pierian
Sodality here present, do hereby form ourselves into an Association, to meet annually
in Cambridge, on Commencement day, for the purpose of enjoying each other's
society, and of devising and executing plans for the promotion of musical taste and
science in the University.
2. RESOLVED, That we consider Music worthy of a place in every system of
education, and particularly in our University; and that a committee of three be chosen
to report at the next annual meeting upon the expediency and best means of trying to
introduce it there as a regular branch of instruction.
3. RESOLVED, That the plan of collecting a complete Musical Library merits our
attention; and that a Committee of three be chosen to report at the next annual meeting
upon the whole subject. 141
The committee created to advise on the establishment of a music professorship
reported on the subject the next year to the society. The report was forwarded to President
Quincy. Although the content of the report is unknown, we can assume it made little
impact on the administration, as nothing changed and no reference can be found on the
subject of music studies in Harvard records for another twenty-four years. With the
possible exception of Quincy, it seems that the faculty and trustees of Harvard still did
not believe in the viability of such an appointment.
Although these meetings of the Sodality did not immediately bring about a
professorship, they did result in the creation of the “General Association of Past and
Present Members of the Pierian Sodality” (known from 1840 as the “Harvard Musical
Association”), dedicated to improving musical life on campus and in Boston in general.
John Sullivan Dwight, who had been a member of the original committee that
recommended the formation of the Association, was a prominent member, and was
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141 !Boston Musical Gazette 1, no. 6 (11 July 1838): 42
! 88!