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“Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here!” - Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and The Philospher's Stone

So, Dumbledore is pretty darned fond of music.

We also know that, under Dumbledore, Hogwarts has been barely regulated (it's mentioned later on that Dumbledore basically has free reign to teach what he likes and hire what teachers he likes).

There's also a fair amount of extracurricular activities (quidditch, gobstones, chess etc.). These kids get up to some things.

We know that there are some popular and successful musicians in the magical world (Celestina Warbeck and The Weird Sisters are among them). Back out in the real world young people are very likely to use their teenage years trying to emulate popular musicians.

There also seems to be (on the whole) very little poverty among Hogwarts students. The Weasleys are always a little short, but just about everyone else can afford a heap of books each year, uniform, wand, broom and a pet with no trouble. So it wouldn't be too ridiculous to get an instrument tutor in for kids who wanted to play.

And yet, Hogwarts has:

  • No instrument tutors
  • No students who play an instrument in their own time.
  • No band/choir/orchestra (Remember, the movies are not canon).
  • Nobody even seems to listen to music. (There are magical radios, but we only see them outside of Hogwarts)

So why not? The headmaster loves it, the kids love some musical acts (even though they don't seem to listen to them), but no kids care?

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  • 2
    Of course the HP movies are canon. They're adaptations of the books, but canon nonetheless.
    – IloneSP
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 14:34
  • I don't remember properly, but one of the movies had the students singing something like a carrol and Flitwick conducting them with his wand.
    – Infinity Milestone
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 14:57
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    We don't have AFAIK any evidence to prove or disprove the teaching of magic at Hogwarts
    – SpacePhoenix
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 18:39
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    @SpacePhoenix Except for the quote I started the ticket with. Dumbledore describes music as "magic beyond all we do here". Which would make no logical sense if music was among the things done at Hogwarts.
    – AJFaraday
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 18:58
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    According to Dumbledore love is the greatest magic of all, yet Hogwarts doesn’t seem to teach much of that either.
    – Alex
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 22:22

1 Answer 1

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Music and Muggle Music are both taught at Hogwarts as an extra-curricular activity, as seen in Gameboy Colour Game 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'.

According to the blurb, Muggle Music classes are only available to third years and above. You can see the classroom below and here. It features drums, a piano and choral stands.

enter image description here

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  • OP specified in their question that they were asking exclusively about the books.
    – ibid
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 22:28
  • @ibid - Did they? I must have missed that.. They certainly stated that they didn't consider the movies to be canon, but there's nothing about the games
    – Valorum
    Commented Jun 28, 2021 at 22:35
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    Typically games are ranked below movies in "canonical precedence" lists... as I'm sure you know. Seems to reason if OP doesn't consider movies canon (however silly that position is), they also don't consider games canon, either.
    – TylerH
    Commented Jun 29, 2021 at 16:09
  • I’m starting to consider the games Canon.
    – AJFaraday
    Commented Jul 6, 2021 at 6:34

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