The Fredösphere

My buddy Don, the barbershop quartet enthusiast, invited me to join the local BBS chorus on Saturday night to watch a webcast of the final round of this year's Barbershop Harmony quartet competition.  Don invited me on the thoughtful suggestion of Rob Pettigrew, who has capably taken direction of the Huron Valley Harmonizers after the unexpected loss of its previous director.

The group was at its most relaxed, which is saying a lot.  Their approach to music is light on rehearsal; they know and live the charm of simply opening their mouths and singing.  Thus the emphasis on tradition; they are all about singing songs that "everyone" knows already.  Naturally, for we few, we happy few who can read a vocal score more or less effortlessly, the experience is a joy.  No matter what route you take--memorization or sight reading--it's a blast to skip all that exasperating note-pounding and just sing the dang thang.

So, Saturday night's webcast was interrupted at times to sing some old "tags."  Tags are the flash fiction of choral composition:  snips of music 4-8 measures long with terse, impressionistic texts.  Some of the tags were unknown to some of the singers present; these were taught in a matter of a minute or two by the oral method.  Tags are a glue for the international barbershop movement; any diverse group of barbershop singers can instantly begin making music together simply by singing the well known tags.  Writing a few would serve as an excellent exercise; I'll have to try it.

Singing is a catalyst for group cohesion like little else (except maybe incoming enemy mortar fire).  A visitor instantly feels the über-welcoming gemütlichkeit of a barbershop chorus meeting that reminds one of the atmosphere of an unusually healthy church.  Indeed, I'll bet barbershop singing is a substitute religion for some; you get the community without all that bothersome wrangling over theological minutia.  (Oops; I just remembered, barbershoppers are not immune to fighting their own holy wars.)

I was pleased to find out that, of the 10 quartets competing on Saturday night, my pick won:  OC Times, which you can see here from the 2006 competition:



OC Times won simply because they outsang the others, with nothing harsh or wobbly anywhere, and excellent balance.  I think their decision not to wear deep purple suits with chartreuse shirts did them no harm as well.  That's something that cannot be said about all the quartets.

Labels: BarbershopHarmony