The Department of Music at Harvard University is a research-intensive academic unit that combines historical, analytical and practice-based approaches to music. It offers an A.B. concentration for undergraduates and a Ph.D. programme in musicology, ethnomusicology, theory, composition, and Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry. Its facilities include John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, electro-acoustic and ethnomusicology laboratories, and the Harvard University Studio for Electroacoustic Composition (HUSEAC).

Faculty and students engage in archival scholarship, fieldwork, composition and performance projects that often intersect with wider humanities research. Through dual-degree arrangements with New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music, the Department maintains links to professional conservatory training while retaining its primary focus on academic inquiry. This blend of scholarship, creation and performance positions the Department as a key academic partner for initiatives that explore historical musical exchanges and support new artistic production.