Tallahassee Democrat 12/09/2012
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| RING A CHORD |
| MERRIAM
Barbershop quartets celebrate
by singing in perfect harmony
Peggy Brady
Special to the Democrat
A performance by the quartet “Equal Time” last year at
Westminster Oaks. (Left to right) Donna Lerner, tenor;
Gerry Frost, lead; Bruce Bickley, bass; Woody Wise,
baritone.
IF YOU GO
What: The Capital Chordsmen Holiday Concert
Where: Tallahassee Senior Center, 1400 N. Monroe St.
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Information: Adults $12.50, seniors $10, students $5. Call
891-4000.
founded in 1938. It is the
largest men’s a cappella
music organization in
the world, with choruses
all over the U.S. and in a
dozen nations.
“You can meet a barbershopper from anywhere in the world and
sing the same songs,
ringing the same chords
in the same places in
each song,” Bickley
said. “Barbershop music
transmits a universal
language.”
Tallahassee’s chapter,
the Capital Chordsmen,
is one of about 40 in
Florida, and according
to Bickley, it’s a diverse
group.
“It includes government employees, college
students, businessmen,
farmers and professionals,” he said. “We all
share the common bond
of a love of singing.”
Divided into quartets
with creative names like
The Rolling Tones, In-AChord, Equal Time and
Revised Edition, each
group of four unaccompanied voices produces
all the chords and melodies in every song. They
The Capital Chordsmen rehearse
Thursday nights from 7 to 9:30
p.m. at the Tallahassee Senior
Center. Visit their website at
www.capitalchordsmen.org.
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Betton Place Shops
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Barbershop quartet
singing owes a great
deal to African-American barbers and their
customers, who sang to
entertain themselves.
Retired FSU English
professor and avid barbershopper Bruce Bickley explained his attraction to this art form.
“The first time you
sing a chord perfectly in
a barbershop quartet,
your chest cavity resonates with the synchronized vibrations,”
he said. “You may even
hear that magical fifth
note, so to speak, in a
chord technically produced by only four
voices. And then you
catch yourself smiling.
Wow — that sounded
great! I want to do that
again. What’s our next
song? You run the happy
risk of being hooked on
vocal harmony for life.
As I have been.”
The tradition of fourpart harmony lies in the
complex musical structures of peoples from
the coast of West and
Central Africa who were
forcibly brought in slave
ships to the Americas.
But singing pure vocal
music also dates back to
ancient times — to tribal
cultures and ethnically
and geographically diverse community song
events celebrating war
and peace, hope and
longing, love and loss.
Those traditions are
preserved by the national Barbershop Harmony
Society — formerly
known as the tonguetwisting SPEBSQSA, the
Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop
Quartet Singing in
America — which was
sing the storylines of
folk ballads, the lyrics of
love songs and the passion and affirmation of
gospel music. Barbershop singers also capture the sorrow of the
blues and the sheer fun
of pop songs — from
melodies by Irving Berlin and the Beatles, to
Ricky Nelson, the Beach
Boys, Elton John and
Michael Jackson.
Around this time of
year, they also sing arrangements of Christmas carols hailing from
the 1600s.
Barbershoppers say
that once you sing with
the group (or in their
lingo, once you “ring a
chord”), you’ve
launched yourself on a
physically exhilarating,
geographically diverse
and historically fascinating journey into vocal music history and
performance. According
to English writer Aldous
Huxley, the audiences
also benefit.
“There is no bad day
that can’t be overcome
by listening to a barbershop quartet,” he said.
“This is just truth, plain
and simple.”
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