"We really try to do a wide range of music...while some of the other groups have pet styles," she says.

"[The Callbacks] love contrast. We'll do a loud pop song then something classical and quiet, then throw in an African folk song," she says.

The Pitches, more constrained by their members' range than the co-ed groups, tend to sing music modelled on groups such as the Supremes and Andrews Sister, says Pitches member Alissa F. Kingsbury '93. And Under Construction, more restrained by its mission than other groups, tends to sing Gospel songs, Park says.

The Veritones also have a mission, though theirs is not so explicitly stated. "The one thing that makes the Veritones stand out is our public service," says Krochuk. He says that since 1988 the group has raised more than $62,000 for the charitable organization, Make A Wish, And because the group keeps few proceeds from its performances, it has been able to raise funds for a number of charitable organizations.

The Pitches have a goal somewhat closer to home. "We end up carrying the message that Radcliffe still does exist," says Kingsbury. The group sings at Radcliffe functions and gets support from Radcliffe alumnae. "It ends up being sort of a special thing," she says.

But not all the groups are so ideologically motivated. Though the Kroks also sing at benefit concerts, they are not without their more pragmatic impulses.

"We are stuffy and that's the main complaint made against us," O'Keefe says. "[But] we sing for adults much more than we sing for students. Adults pay our bills." Fairly prestigious adults, at that--the Kroks regularly play to foreign dignitaries and heads of state on the world tour they embark upon each summer. The group members' travelling expenses are paid by proceeds from performances during the year, O'Keefe says.

Much of the Kroks's celebrity indubitably springs from the group's past, but that sort of historical hierarchy is growing more negligible in the Harvard community, many singers say. Some say that any sort of hierarchy is becoming negligible.

Jen S. Light '93, a member of the Callbacks, stresses that although she thinks the groups have different sounds and personalities, she no longer thinks there is great range in the quality of their performances.

"This year [at the Freshman Jam] the groups came across pretty evenly, whereas in the past some of the groups wowed the audience and the others were good but not great," Light says.

"I don't think any a cappella group is better than another," she says.

The three co-ed a cappella groups, who might be expected to feel competitive with one another, are sponsoring a joint jam this December. The Christmas concert marks the first combined effort of the ensembles independent of the Freshman Jam. Hunter says she thinks this event is indicative of a new spirit of cooperation among Harvard's singing groups. Though she acknowledges that "recognition is something [a cappella groups] have to fight for," Hunter says that the various performers "are finally supporting each other instead of competing." Krochuk says he has noticed that trend himself.

"There was a time around here when there was a lot of rivalry," he says. "I'm really excited [about the change]. The groups are working well together this year."

All the groups on campus this year coordinated their auditions, Krochuk says, and no disputes arose. He also says that the groups now send each other good-luck cards before the jams. And despite the supposed rivalry between the Dins and the Kroks, O'Keefe says, "I love the Dins. We're getting along better now."

Park says she hopes that all the a cappella groups will support each other more in the future. She says she hopes that Harvard will someday form an umbrella a cappella organization similar to the one at Yale, which coordinates concerts and regulates auditions.

The atmosphere--though changing--is warming.

"These groups are not just business," Krochuk says. "It's a community, it really is."

And it is still an integral and thriving part of the larger University community. The Callbacks this fall drew 850 people to their first Sanders Theater jam, and expect to come out soon with their first album. Their success and the success of the other a capella groups does not seem likely to decline, even after fall and its associated traditions have passed.