Barbershop music

thumb|[[The Dapper Dans barbershop quartet, at Disneyland's Main Street, USA]]

thumb|right|[[Works Progress Administration|WPA poster, 1936]]

Barbershop music is a style of a cappella close harmony and vocal harmony, or unaccompanied vocal music, characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a primarily homorhythmic texture. Each of the four parts has its own role: generally, the lead sings the melody, the tenor harmonizes above the melody, the bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone completes the chord, usually below the lead. The melody is not usually sung by the tenor or baritone, except for an infrequent note or two to avoid awkward voice leading, in tags or codas, or when some appropriate embellishment can be created. One characteristic feature of barbershop harmony is the use of what is known as "snakes" and "swipes". This is when a chord is altered by a change in one or more non-melodic voices. Occasional passages may be sung by fewer than four voice parts.

Barbershop music is generally performed by either a barbershop quartet, a group of four singers which sings four-part harmony, or a barbershop chorus, which closely resembles a choir with the notable exception of the genre of music.

According to the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS), "Barbershop music features songs with understandable lyrics and easily singable melodies, whose tones clearly define a tonal center and imply major and minor chords and barbershop (dominant and secondary dominant) seventh chords that resolve primarily around the circle of fifths, while making frequent use of other resolutions."

What is prized is not so much the "overtone" itself, but a unique sound whose achievement is most easily recognized by the presence of the "overtone". The precise synchrony of the waveforms of the four voices simultaneously creates the perception of a "fifth voice" while at the same time melding the four voices into a unified sound. The ringing chord is qualitatively different in sound from an ordinary musical chord e.g. as sounded on a tempered-scale keyboard instrument.

Most elements of the "revivalist" style are related to the desire to produce these ringing chords. Performance is a cappella to prevent the distracting introduction of equal-tempered intonation, and because listening to anything but the other three voices interferes with a performer's ability to tune with the precision required. Barbershop arrangements stress chords and chord progressions that favor "ringing", at the expense of suspended and diminished chords and other harmonic vocabulary of the ragtime and jazz forms.

The dominant seventh-type chord is so important to barbershop harmony that it is called the "barbershop seventh". BHS arrangers believe that a song should contain dominant seventh chords anywhere from 35 to 60 percent of the time (measured as a percentage of the duration of the song rather than a percentage of the chords present) to sound "barbershop".

Historically barbershoppers may have used the word "minor chord" in a way that is confusing to those with musical training. Averill suggests that it was "a shorthand for chord types other than major triads", and says that the use of the word for "dominant seventh-type chords and diminished chords" was common in the late nineteenth century. A 1910 song called "Play That Barber Shop Chord" (often cited as an early example of "barbershop" in reference to music) contains the lines:

<blockquote>'Cause Mister when you start that minor part<br>I feel your fingers slipping and a grasping at my heart,<br>Oh Lord play that Barber shop chord!</blockquote>

Averill notes the hints of rapture, "quasi-religion" and erotic passion in the language used by barbershoppers to describe the emotional effect. He quotes Jim Ewin as reporting "a tingling of the spine, the raising of the hairs on the back of the neck, the spontaneous arrival of goose flesh on the forearm ... the fifth note has almost mysterious propensities. It's the consummation devoutly wished by those of us who love Barbershop harmony. If you ask us to explain why we love it so, we are hard put to answer; that's where our faith takes over." Averill notes too the use of the language of addiction, "there's this great big chord that gets people hooked." An early manual was entitled "A Handbook for Adeline Addicts".

Historical memoirs and journalism indicate a strong tradition of quartet singing among young African-American men, gathering informally to "crack up a chord". This was acknowledged as early as 1882, when a New York Age writer traced the development of this singing as a home-grown amusement, arising from the exclusion of Black people from theaters and concert halls.

Later, white minstrel singers adopted the style, and in the early days of the recording industry their performances were recorded and sold. Early standards included songs such as "Shine On, Harvest Moon", "Hello, Ma Baby", and "Sweet Adeline". Johnson noted in the 1920s how the genre had already crossed racial barriers. Composer and pianist Scott Joplin incorporated a barbershop quartet into his 1911 opera Treemonisha.

The modern era of barbershop music is accepted to have begun with a 1940s revival, though opinions as to the genre's origins vary with respect to race, gender, region, and context.

Other researchers argue that today's barbershop music is an invented tradition related to several musical features popular around 1900, including quartet singing and the use of the barbershop chord,

Organizations

Barbershop music is promoted through the use of competition for quartets and choruses run by not-for-profit organizations. Barbershop organizations often provide judging, education, coaching and promotion services for local choruses and quartets.

United States

In the United States, there are three major organizations which are intended to preserve the style of barbershop music: The Barbershop Harmony Society, a historically men's organization until 2018; SingUnited International (known until 2026 as Sweet Adelines International), a women's organization; and Harmony, Incorporated which splintered off from Sweet Adelines International in 1959. Another organization called The Society for the Preservation and Propagation of Barbershop Quartet Singing in the United States (SPPBSQSUS) formed in 2018 as a fraternal organization to preserve and perpetuate all-male barbershop quartet singing; since 2024, it operates as the Worldwide Barbershop Quartet Association (WBQA).

Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS)

The revival of a cappella singing took place circa 1938 when tax lawyer Owen C. Cash sought to save the art form from the threat of radio. He garnered support from investment banker Rupert I. Hall. Both came from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Cash was a partisan of quartet singing who advertised the fact that he did not want a cappella to fall by the wayside. Thousands of men responded. Later the "Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America" was established, known by the abbreviation S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. at a time when many institutions in the US used multiple initials to denote their function. The group adopted the alternate name "Barbershop Harmony Society" early in its history. While its legal name has never changed, it changed its official brand name to "Barbershop Harmony Society" in 2004.

For the majority of its history, the society had all-male membership. It was all-white until 1963 when it allowed black members, and since 2018, it allows women to join as members.

SingUnited International

[[File:Ronninge Show Chorus (2).jpg|thumb|

Rönninge Show, the highest ever scoring Sweet Adelines International barbershop chorus.

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SingUnited International, a worldwide organization of women singers, was established in 1945 as Sweet Adelines by Edna Mae Anderson of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The aim was to teach and train its members in music and to create and promote barbershop quartets and other musical groups. By year's end, the first chapter incorporated in Oklahoma with Anderson as its president. Sweet Adelines went international on March 23, 1953, when the first chapter outside the U.S. was chartered in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Even though there were international chapters, it was not until May 1991 that the name officially changed to Sweet Adelines International. It has a current membership of 23,000 and holds an annual international singing competition. The organization changed its name to SingUnited International in May 2026.

Harmony, Incorporated (HI)

In 1957, several members of Sweet Adelines International (SAI) broke from the organization in protest of the policy limiting membership to Caucasian women. In 1958, chapters from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Orillia, Ontario, also left SAI to form Harmony, Incorporated. (Sweet Adelines changed their policy in 1966).

In 1963, a Sweet Adeline chapter in Ottawa, Ontario was threatened with expulsion after accepting a black woman, Lana Clowes, as a member. As a result, Ottawa's Capital Chordettes left SAI to become the seventh chapter to join Harmony, Incorporated.

In 2013, Harmony, Inc. announced the creation of the Affiliate membership category, extending membership to men involved with the organization.

International organizations

After the establishment of the above organizations, other countries have begun their organizations to promote Barbershop music. These international organizations are often affiliated with one of the United States organizations listed above or by the World Harmony Council. Some are gender exclusive organizations while some are mixed. They include; British Association of Barbershop Singers, Barbershop Harmony Australia (BHA), Barbershop Harmony New Zealand (BHNZ), Barbershop in Germany (BinG), Finnish Association of Barbershop Singers (FABS), Holland Harmony (HH), Irish Association of Barbershop Singers (IABS), Ladies Association of Barbershop Singers (LABBS) in the United Kingdom, Spanish Association of Barbershop Singers (SABS), Society of Nordic Barbershop Singers (SNOBS) and the Swiss Association of Barbershop Singers (SWABS).

Performance groups

Quartets

A barbershop quartet is an ensemble of four people who sing a cappella in the exacting barbershop music genre.

In North America, the Barbershop Harmony Society hosts contests for all singers. Female barbershop quartet singers can also compete in SingUnited International or Harmony, Inc., and the Society for the Preservation and Propagation of Barbershop Quartet Singing in the U.S. is available to male singers. Similar organizations exist in other continents and countries.

Choruses

A barbershop chorus sings a cappella music in the barbershop style. Most barbershop choruses belong to a larger association of practitioners such as the Barbershop Harmony Society, Sweet Adelines International, LABBS (Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers), BABS (British Association of Barbershop Singers) or Harmony, Inc.

In the Barbershop Harmony Society, a chorus is the main performing aspect of each chapter. In competition, choruses may have as few as 12 members singing, with no upper limit. Choruses normally sing with a director, as distinct from quartets. It is not uncommon for a new quartet to form within a chorus, or for an established quartet affiliated with a given chorus to lose a member (to death, retirement, or relocation) and recruit a replacement from the ranks of the chorus. Choruses can also provide "spare parts" to temporarily replace a quartet member who is ill or out of town.

Unlike a quartet, a chorus need not have equal numbers singing each voice part. According to BHS, the ideal balance in a chorus is about 40% bass, 30% lead, 20% baritone and 10% tenor singers.

Filling the gap between the chorus and the quartet is what is known as a VLQ or Very Large Quartet, in which more than four singers perform together, with two or more voices on some or all of the four parts. A VLQ possesses greater flexibility than a standard quartet, since they can perform even with one or more singers missing, as long as all four parts are covered. Like a standard quartet, a VLQ usually performs without a director.

Typical barbershop songs

Barbershop Harmony Society's Barberpole Cat Songs "Polecats"—12 songs which all Barbershop Harmony Society members are encouraged to learn as a shared canonic repertoire—all famous, traditional examples of the barbershop genre:

The Barbershop Harmony Society announced on May 28, 2015, that the "Polecat" program would be expanded to include the following songs:

Examples of other songs popular in the barbershop genre are:

While these traditional songs still play a part in barbershop today, barbershop music also includes more current titles. Most music can be arranged in the barbershop style, and there are many arrangers within the aforementioned societies with the skills to include the barbershop chord structure in their arrangements. Today's barbershop quartets and choruses sing a variety of music from all eras—show tunes, pop, and even rock music has been arranged for choruses and quartets, making them more attractive to younger singers.

References

External links

Present at the Creation: Barbershop Quartets from NPR
Barbershop Quartets on 78rpms: How Quartet Harmonizing Became Known as Barbershop
Listen to Barbershop music at the Internet Archive
The Origins of Barbershop Harmony
Barbershop Wiki Project