Two Centuries of Sound
Celebrating a fabled orchestra’s origins
by Richard Dyer
On March 6, 1808, six men of Harvard formed the Pierian Sodality: the direct ancestor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, which this season celebrates its two-hundredth anniversary.
Whether this makes the HRO the oldest orchestra in America, as it proudly claims, may be subject to debate, because that 1808 fellowship of admirers of the Muses wasn’t an orchestra—it was a convivial association built around liquor, cigars, “performing music for the enjoyment of others,” and “serenading young women in the square.” The sodality went through good years and bad patches. In 1832, Henry Gassett was its only member; he kept it alive by paying dues to himself, holding meetings, and playing flute solos, thereby becoming a hero to subsequent generations of Pierians. By the 1870s, however, the organization had indeed become an orchestra; its mission to advance music had led to the creation of the Harvard Glee Club, the Harvard music department, the Harvard Musical Association, and even the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Harvard University Archives
This early 1970s poster for an HRO concert advertises a guest appearance by a young cellist named Yo-Yo Ma.
Certainly the sodality was the first university symphony orchestra in America, and for a long time the largest. It began to tour in 1908 and, starting in the 1960s, traveled to Europe, South America, or Asia at least once in every student generation. In 1936, women from Radcliffe College were invited to participate as guest performers, and in 1942 the ensemble formally became the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.
Its alumni have included doctors, lawyers, academics, a Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the new music director of the New York Philharmonic, and many players active in major orchestras. Boston Symphony Orchestra assistant principal cellist (and Boston Pops principal) Martha Babcock ’70 played in the orchestra in 1966-’67 before joining the Montreal Symphony. “The HRO experience opened a whole new world for me and raised my standards,” she says. “Some of the pieces we played, like Stravinsky’s Petrushka, I had never heard before. I didn’t really have a distinct career path yet, but this turned out to be the prelude to a satisfying musical life.”
Senior lecturer on music James Yannatos—known to generations of students as “Dr. Y”—became the orchestra’s music director in 1964. His 44-season tenure has seen many fluctuations and changes: in the late 1960s, for example, some musicians felt the orchestra represented “the establishment” and left for other ensembles; some years have seen no vacancies for certain instruments, while an entire section may graduate in others; meanwhile, the players themselves reflect Harvard’s increasing diversity.
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