The great ecological paradox of Harvard music, however, is that in spite of this interdependency and what one would expect to be the common bond of mutual interest in music, many musical groups are guilty of exclusiveness, lack of cooperation, and even open animosity.

Like any other rarified circle of existence, Harvard music has its own jargon and names to be dropped: HRO, HGC, HRMC, Sanders, Paine, Holmes, and HG&SP, to name a few.

Proliferating jargon is a good indication of the bewildering variety of musical organizations, clubs, societies, performing groups, concert series, and auditoria that make up the Harvard musical world. As any musically inclined freshman will tell you, the newcomer to Cambridge is faced with a wide variety of opportunities to express himself in music and, especially at certain times of the year (early December and May) a plethora of musical events to attend.

Each of these is enticing in its own way, but involvement in everything would be impossible.

Ptolemaic Universe

The Harvard musical world resembles a huge unwieldy Ptolemaic universe--full of irregular and continuing spheres and orbits. The sphere closest to the center is the one containing the musical Leviathans: The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, the Harvard University Band and the Harvard Glee Club (with its somewhat dependent satellite the Radcliffe Choral Society). These are the big prestigious organizations; they involve the most people and are the first to attract the attention of neophyte musicians. They are the only musical organizations enjoying anything like official status. Like all extracurricular activity here, they receive no operating support from the University, but their conductors are appointed and paid by the University.

Just outside this sphere hovers the University Choir. Like the Glee Club, the Choir is led by a University-appointee, in this case Mem Church's University organist and choirmaster. Its members are for the most part paid, making it something of an anomaly in the context of Harvard music (although less so as more professionals are employed in extracurricular activities). Some of its members, however, are "volunteers," participating as they would in any other organization.

The Houses

The Houses are the next major sphere of musical activity. Leverett comes closest to the inner sphere of the big auspicious organizations. Its chief claim to fame is its Opera Society which as Yearbook 331 puts it, "has become the most active producer of large-scale musical events among the Houses." Its major effort this year was a highly successful production of The Marriage of Figaro, mounted with the aid of professional singers and instrumentalists and a $4500 budget.

Quincy and Winthrop also produced "large-scale musical events," although of a rather different sort. Musical comedy is a convenient object of musical condescension around here, but Quincy and Winthrop constitute an oasis of adamant naivete in the desert of general sophistication.

Beyond the world of musical stage productions is an entirely different sphere of musical activity: the world of the House concert. Here the music is produced on an entirely different scale, concentrating on solo recital, chamber music and, at largest, chamber chorus.

The principal lights of this world are Adams, Dunster and Kirkland, which remain active throughout the year. Dunster features Sunday afternoon sightreadings in the library to which anyone with an instrument and a music stand is invited. At Kirkland, the proximity of dining hall and junior common room has inspired a successful series of after-dinner concerts designed to fill the gap between dinner and an evening at the movies.

Then there is the outer sphere of the Harvard musical universe: the Graduate Chorale, radio station WHRB, the Gilbert and Sullivan Players, the Bach Society Orchestra. The Graduate Chorale is a totally voluntary, no-auditions-required group designed to put a little enjoyment and art into the lives of library-bound grad students.

WHRB and G&S are both quasimusical organizations, the former almost by definition because it's a radio station and not a performing group, and the latter because it is ensconced in its Castle Adamant at Agassiz, and it tries to be musical and dramatic Establishment at the same time.

The Bach Society Orchestra is in a class by itself. Unlike the HRO, it is organized and conducted entirely by students. It is a chamber-sized group, usually performing music suited to its dimensions and wisely refraining from competing with the much larger HRO on its own terms. Nonetheless, it does have to draw from the same pool of musicians and attempt to attract the same audience, and is constantly struggling to maintain itself alongside the more prestigious HRO. When the HRO is up, the BSO is down and vice versa. Since the advent of James Yannatos as conductor of the HRO, the Bach Society has had to play underdog.