What is barbershop?

Barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note. The melody is consistently sung by the lead, with the tenor harmonizing above the melody, the bass singing the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone completing the chord.  Occasional passages may be sung by fewer than four voice parts, or another voice part may sing melody for a short time.  Tuning needs to be as close to perfect as possible, and the style is distinguished by uniformity of word sounds and an emphasis on close harmony to produce harmonic overtones.  In traditional choral music, all parts try to sing equally in volume.  However, in this original American art form,  a cone-shaped sound is the goal, with the bass as foundation and tenor singing clearly but lightly at the top.  So bass and baritone are definitely not alto, and lead and tenor are absolutely not soprano! 

 

Pitch Pipe Magazine

If you want to stay informed of the all the happenings of the female barbershop music scene, subscribe to Pitch Pipe, which is put out by Sweet Adelines International each quarter. It's full of news, reviews, and previews of coming events and competitions.

 

Barbershop music features songs with understandable lyrics and easily singable melodies.  The attraction of the artform is in its celebration of, and accessibility to, the average singer, yet there are complex subleties to the harmonization and style that may take years to learn. 

 

The basic song and its harmonization are embellished by the arranger to provide support of the song's theme and to close the song effectively. Barbershop singers adjust pitches to achieve perfectly tuned chords in just intonation while remaining true to the established tonal center.

Artistic singing in the Barbershop style exhibits a fullness or expansion of sound, precise intonation, a high degree of vocal skill and a high level of unity and consistency within the ensemble. Ideally, these elements are natural, unmanufactured and free from apparent effort.

 

The presentation of Barbershop music uses appropriate musical and visual methods to convey the theme of the song and provide the audience with an emotionally satisfying and entertaining experience. The musical and visual delivery is from the heart, believable, and sensitive to the song and its arrangement throughout. The most stylistic presentation artistically melds together the musical and visual aspects to create and sustain the illusions suggested by the music.

 

 

History of Sweet Adelines International

After World War II, barbershop singing was growing increasingly popular for men. The men's version of the barbershop artform is alive and growing today in the Barbershop Harmony Society.  In 1945, a small group of women wanted to participate in the chord-ringing, fun-filled harmony that the men were singing. So these women organized "Sweet Adelines in America." From its humble beginnings in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sweet Adelines International, as it is now called, has grown to a membership of around 25,000 women singers, 1200 registered quartets, and 600 choruses in countries across the globe who all compete by singing in English, since barbershop is an American art form.