"You did it over and over, says Cornelia H. Rinderknecht '00, a new member of the Pitches. "By the end of callbacks you were completely tired and not singing that well."

"People always say there are far too many a cappella groups on campus, but if you take the number of people who want to sing, there aren't that many," says Glenn A. Nano '98, a member of On the Rocks, a group whose members are on leave this year.

But part of what makes Harvard's groups so talented is their relatively small size.

Each group averages roughly 12 to 15 students, thus assuring a consistently high quality from year to year.

"If they weren't selective, there wouldn't be too much of a point," says Robert E. Schlesinger '00, who tried out unsuccessfully for three groups last week.

"If everyone was always guaranteed in getting into a group, then the quality would go down," he says.

With only eight groups in all, dozens of students like Schlesinger are disappointed each semester.

"It's hard to say which is better: To have a lot of groups or just some really good ones," says Melissa K. Gruber '00, a new member of the Callbacks.

"If they had a lot more groups, then the talent of some of the groups would not be as high," she says.

Other schools, like Yale and Stanford, have more a cappella groups of similarly high acclaim, offering more opportunities for students, says Gruber.

But at Harvard, it is usually the smallest of differences that end up being the most significant in determining which singers are selected.

"[The decisions] get stickier and sticker by the end," says Marc S.Scheff '99.

Other Options

After a week of trying out for the different groups, the majority of auditionees must seek other musical outlets -- if not an entirely different extra curricular activity.

Many students choose to join larger singing groups like the University Choir, the Holden Choirs or the Collegium Musicum. Otherwise, they participate in Common Casting and audition for one of the College's student musical productions.