'Tis the Season...
Band Allowed to Perform In Rockefeller Plaza Concert

   For the first time in four years, the 
Columbia University Ad Hoc Beethoven's
Birthday Christmas Caroling Boston Tea Party
Marching Band failed to taunt Rockefeller
Center authorities into removing them from
the Center's Promennade.
   Last year, it took a bribe of free drinks
in the English Grill at the Skating Rink to
make the band stop playing.
   This year, however, in a reversal of 
policy a spokesman for the Rockefeller 
Center security force informed the eleven 
band members present that "we like 
Christmas." He told Peter Janovsky '68, 
manager of the band, that they were welcome 
to play in the Columbia midtown complex, 
which rests on land owned by Columbia, so 
long as they did not disrupt the free 
passage of sightseers, businessman, [sic]
and secretaries in the area.
   Band members arrived at Rockefeller 
Center at approximately 4:30 pm, armed with 
a red-and-green placard which was to be used
to inform authorities from the midtown 
complex to "Take Your Buildings and Leave!"
   The sign was not needed. One band member 
went to look for a guard who would attempt 
to remove the band from the area but was 
unsuccessful.
   Asked what he though [sic] about not 
being asked to leave the complex, Janovsky,
visibly frustrated, said, "this is 
ridiculous."
   The band played a number of standard 
Christmas carols, including "Silent Night"
and "God Rest Ye, Jerry Mandelbaum." In 
honor of Beethoven's birthday, which took 
place four days ago, the band played a 
rendition of the "Ode to Joy" from the Ninth
Symphony.
   To dramatize Columbia's claim to the land,
the Ad Hoc music group played "Who Owns New
York?" with a vocal accompanyment by band
members.
   The band presented what may have been the 
New York City debut of an authentic 
Australian diborignal digereedoo, a long
tube-shaped instrument which makes a 
drone-like sound. According to Janovsky, the
instrument is the only marching digereedoo 
in the world.
   A Columba band member obtained the 
digereedoo directly from Australia. 
Janovsky said that none are available in
New York.
   A crowd of several hundred passers-by
stopped to listen to the impromptu band 
concert, which lasted for about two hours. A
little girl helped lead the band at one 
point until she was frightened away by a 
flash from a photographer's camera.
   Somber-looking executives suddenly broke
into smiles and many bystanders joined in 
song when popular Christmas carols were 
played. One woman, however, was disappointed
that the band did not include a shofar, a 
ceremonial instrument used in certain 
religious ceremonies of the Jewish faith.
   At one point, the band marched up the 
promenade to Fifth Ave. and joined a four-
piece Salvation Army band in Christmas 
carols. The Salvation Army musicians seemed
grateful for a chance to rest for a few 
moments while the Columbia band performed.
   Audience response to the band performance
seemed to be more than favorable. Yet even
the musical happening could not completely
erase a somewhat somber shadow whose weight
some members of the crowd seemed to feel.