Twenty small practice rooms line the hallways of the basement of Harvard's music building. In one, a student monotonously plays piano scales, while the sound of a soprano aria drifts through the walls. In an adjoining classroom, a professor discusses music theory with his students. A saxophone wails at the end of the hall.

Each weekend, students can see everything from orchestras to a capella groups. Some of the nation's best-known musical talents hail from Harvard: Yo Yo Ma '76, Leonard Bernstein '39, Robinson Professor of Music Robert D. Levin '68 and more recently, jazz musician Joshua Redman '91 and cellist Matt Haimovitz '96.

Faced with such a wealth of musical talent and performance, it is easy for someone not involved in music to forget that Harvard is not a conservatory. Why, then, did Leonard Bernstein once say that Harvard is a place where music is seen and not heard?

Performance vs. Theory

Traditionally, the Music Department has focused on the intellectual, rather than the technical, aspects of musicianship.

While Harvard boasts perhaps the top department in the country for the field of musicology -- the study of the history, theory and composition of music -- there has never been much emphasis on performance.

This may not seem unusual or controversial for a liberal arts college. Harvard's scholastic tradition, based on English and European universities, values intellectual study and theory, and all but prohibits the practice of crafts.

But over the past few years, as academic debate has collapsed and transformed traditional disciplines, questions have been raised about Harvard's exclusion of performance from its Music Department.

The number of virtuosos attending Harvard makes the traditional omission of music performance even more difficult to explain. Students argue that the department should offer more for undergrads who want to become professional musicians.

While some students say they understand the University's current policy, others, especially those planning on becoming professional musicians, are irate over what they characterize as neglect of performance within the department.

"I don't think music is supported here," one performer says. "There isn't a good relationship between the Music Department and a lot of the undergraduates."

Although an estimated 2,500 students are involved in one way or another with performing arts at Harvard, there are only 31 full music concentrators and 18 double concentrators in music and another field.

Many have turned their backs on the Music Department, dissatisfied with the department's offerings and frustrated with the limited performance instruction.

"If there was a music performance concentration, I probably would have concentrated in it," says Shasa R. Dobrow '97, a bassoon player in Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) who decided to concentrate in biological anthropology instead.

One Small Step...

In more recent years, the Music Department has begun to incorporate some performance into its curriculum. Levin's appointment as Harvard's first-ever professor of performance, the creation of performance classes Music 180 and 91r and performance opportunities in Literature and Arts B Core courses such as "First Nights" and "Chamber Music" are tentative steps towards this end.