Word: piccolos
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Myriad details emerge: the skittering piccolo, singing out over the thundering trombones at the end of the Fantastique finale; the raw, plaintive solo of the cor anglais in the slow movement, forlornly wailing in response to the ominous, muffled strokes of the timpani; the four harps forming a powerful voice in the whirling waltz. Berlioz -- and such contemporaries as Weber, Schumann, Mendelssohn and even early Wagner -- can, and should, never be heard the same way again...
Moreover, Kurzman's underlying premise appears to be that athletic ability is a frivolous, unpraiseworthy attribute, especially when compared to more "Harvardian" skills such as grade-getting or piccolo playing. This is an elitist attitude which exemplifies much of what is wrong about Harvard. The ability to get good grades and the ability to play a musical instrument are merely skills. Like any other skills, they are acquired by a combination of innate ability and practice. They are also ethically neutral; they can be used for ill as well as for good. I see no magical distinction which makes them...
...things people at "lesser" institutions do). If Harvard is based upon this proposition, as Kurzman suggests, it shouldn't be. There are already too many hierarchies at this school separating people into inferior and superior categories. Wouldn't it be simpler and more human to say that good piccolo players and Scott Fusco should excel at what they do and leave it at that? Why is it necessary to say that one is better that the other...
...unfortunate, I suppose, that a large majority of Harvard-students would rather attend the Harvard-Cornell game than a piccolo concerto, but I can't think of a reasonable solution to this problem. An administrative decision to weaken the Harvard hockey team in order to increase attendance at "weightier" events strikes me as a tad unresponsive to student interests. Harvard does have an obligation to recruit piccolo players and to provide them with adequate facilities and instruction. I assume that it does...
...traditional response to such allegations is that Harvard gives "special consideration" to applicants who are talented in any number of ways: piccolo players, journalists, and actors get the same treatment as linemen and forwards. But is the rumor true that athletes get even more special treatment than the others--that Harvard does not have to sacrifice as much academic ability when it admits piccolo players as when it admits athletes...