The measurement itself of the heat capacity was not difficult (but very time-consuming) because of the state-of-the-art calorimeter. On the other hand, my knowledge was deficient in analyzing the results and even catching their meaning. The situation forced me to read textbooks of statistical and solid-state physics.
I found the necessity to generalize the content if we intended to utilize them for molecular crystals. Indeed, the inclusion of rotational and even deformational degrees of freedom into the lattice-dynamical treatment was necessary.