New England Conservatory of Music - Neume Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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To the Class of 1945 We are the fourth class to graduate since Pearl Harbor, and with each year the increasing pressure and urgency of the war have left a deeper impression on us. Under the inevitable conditions of wartime the faculty, the administration, and the entire student body have tried to uphold the standards and spirit of the school of our choice, which some of us have never known in peace time. We will remember with deep appreciation, the interest and helpfulness of the faculty, with gratitude the opportunities for knowledge and skill given us by the Con- servatory, and with fondness the lasting friendships which will always keep us close In spirit to one another. May the class of 1946 graduate in peace! Betty Ruth Smith, President COMMENCEMENT To you my friend, I offer here a thought, A memory that endless knowledge taught. You leave these halls to roam a world untrue To portals of success, that steeper grew As through this false world ' s veil of thin veneer Your guide is gone, and yet the way is clear. Your time is passed, the looking back, the yearning. Those years of friendship, old and golden learning Are far behind, and yet while memory spinning, Remember, forsooth, Commencement is but yet a young beginning. Barbara Piles — 4 —

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Open cJHeltef to llie duSA of 1945 DEAR NEWLY-BAKED MUSICIANS AND FRIENDS! It seems easier to make a symphony than to write that neumatic letter you have asked for. . . . Not because I have nothing to say — but rather because I have so many things to say, and because the important things one can say in life and in art, about life and art, are almost too confidential to be put pompously on a front page. For everything important in life, in history, in art, begins in one ' s innermost self — is shrouded in silence and secrecy, long before becoming tangible, visible, audible. War begins in man ' s heart. Peace begins in man ' s heart. Don ' t ever fall for the stupid fallacy called realism ! How could you, then, be educators? How could you be artists, musicians? For music, also, begins in man ' s heart, and in silence and secrecy. And from there on goes out to discover — literally: dis-coverl — the endless variations of beauty (beginning, alas, with such things as intervals, scales and so forth — luhum! Let us always listen to the music behind the sounds. That is what I call originality : going down to the origins, to the sources. That means sincerity in the true sense of the word, and I would say that the greater the genius, the more sincerity there is in his work. So, maybe, the best I can wish for you is genuineness, sincerity. Approach the things from within — then you will be truly original! Affectionately yours

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ALICE DUCKWORTH Editor in Chief BARBARA FOSS Associate Editor ANASTASIA GULECAS Literary Editor SOMA ARZOMANIAN Art Editor VINNIE PEPE Photography Editor MURIEL ROBINSON Business Manager GEORGETTE BERUBE Advertising Manager MARIAN JAQUES Circulating Manager LAURA MALLET Faculty Advisor — 5 —