Getting students to perform
When he arrived at Harvard in 1999, Richard Wolf brought with him a deep knowledge of South Indian classical music and a desire to share it. In addition to asking his students for a rigorous analytical and ethnographic study of non-Western songs and musical styles, he wanted something else from them. To understand the nuances of the dynamic sounds created by Indian instruments, they had to learn how to play them, such as the elegant vina, a southern lute carved of wood, with strings that players bend with their fingers to reach notes and tones not found on a typical Western scale. “You can only learn so much by listening and analyzing and reading,” said Wolf. “To be able to actually play an instrument helps you listen better, and understand the music better.” So Wolf, with support from Harvard’s Department of Music and its Office of Undergraduate Education, acquired several vinas and South Indian...