Singing of America's Traditions
The term “Barbershop Quartet” evokes the famous Norman Rockwell 1936 painting that captured a barber, his patron and two others holding what must have been a lovely moment of four-part harmony. This enduring bit of Americana is as charming as it is incomplete. More problematic is that the image implies a deeply flawed understanding of the origins of barbershop singing.
The barbershop tradition is part of a singing style called a capella. This Italian musical term means “in the style of the chapel.” That style requires music to be performed solely by the human voice. Contemporary a capella singing can be heard across musical genres as diverse as medieval Gregorian chant and 1950s doo wop.
Barbershop singing is defined by four voices singing separate tones on each note of a melody. The lead singer carries the melody. The tenor harmonizes above the melody. The baritone harmonizes below the melody. The bass voice anchors the sound with the lowest, often root, harmonies. Barbershop harmony is consonant and makes frequent use of what musicians call “seventh tones.” These tones define the airy, rich barbershop sound by creating the “timbre” (tam-bur) or musical color of a piece.
Rockwell’s image is incomplete in several ways. By showing only men singing, the image ignores the reality that women are co-equal in their perfection and performance of this vocal art. Chapters of Sweet Adelines International and Harmony International operate throughout North America, the British Isles, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand. The image is also misleading because it shows a quartet. Today barbershop-style singing can be heard performed by large choruses in which melody and harmony lines are sung by multiple voices.
Norman Rockwell would eventually become the first artist to portray a black person on the cover of a national magazine. But his 1936 painting showed all white singers. Contemporary scholarship, unavailable to him at the time, has reached the unequivocal conclusion that barbershop-style singing is of African-American origin. Rather than flowing out of white barbershops, the singing style traveled into those places on the voices of patrons who admired the singing of African-American a capella quartets.
The published works of Dr. Jim Henry and Lynn Abbot make a compelling case that barbershop singing arose from the African American community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. W.C. Handy recalled that, before he attained national status as “father of the blues,” he sang tenor in what today would be called a barbershop quartet. Handy reported that quartets like his were often hired by young white suitors to serenade their girl friends with love songs. Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton, both famed jazz and blues players and singers, told stories of a capella quartet singing by African-American musicians that had no contemporary musical companion within the white community. It is also a matter of history that the commercially successful Mills Brothers quartet learned their close harmony style of singing in their father’s Ohio barbershop.
The most compelling early use of the term “barbershop” is found on the title page of the 1910 song Play That Barbershop Chord. The image on the score is of Burt Williams. At the time, Mr. Williams, an African-American, was one of the highest paid performers in America. He was considered the premier star of Broadway minstrel shows. The image of a prominent African-American performer on Play That Barbershop Chord authenticated the music as a genuine member of its genre. This same technique was used by publishers of ragtime music who invariably put images of African-Americans on their sheet music. As a side bar, one of Mr. Williams’ friends and understudies was a young juggler. That young man moved on to vaudeville and movies. We remember him as W.C. Fields.
Three major organizations support barbershop singing. Sweet Adelines International and Harmony, Inc. serve female singers. Men join The Barbershop Harmony Society. These societies have no fewer than eighty-thousand members and perform their art before millions of listeners each year.
The barbershop tradition is part of a singing style called a capella. This Italian musical term means “in the style of the chapel.” That style requires music to be performed solely by the human voice. Contemporary a capella singing can be heard across musical genres as diverse as medieval Gregorian chant and 1950s doo wop.
Barbershop singing is defined by four voices singing separate tones on each note of a melody. The lead singer carries the melody. The tenor harmonizes above the melody. The baritone harmonizes below the melody. The bass voice anchors the sound with the lowest, often root, harmonies. Barbershop harmony is consonant and makes frequent use of what musicians call “seventh tones.” These tones define the airy, rich barbershop sound by creating the “timbre” (tam-bur) or musical color of a piece.
Rockwell’s image is incomplete in several ways. By showing only men singing, the image ignores the reality that women are co-equal in their perfection and performance of this vocal art. Chapters of Sweet Adelines International and Harmony International operate throughout North America, the British Isles, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand. The image is also misleading because it shows a quartet. Today barbershop-style singing can be heard performed by large choruses in which melody and harmony lines are sung by multiple voices.
Norman Rockwell would eventually become the first artist to portray a black person on the cover of a national magazine. But his 1936 painting showed all white singers. Contemporary scholarship, unavailable to him at the time, has reached the unequivocal conclusion that barbershop-style singing is of African-American origin. Rather than flowing out of white barbershops, the singing style traveled into those places on the voices of patrons who admired the singing of African-American a capella quartets.
The published works of Dr. Jim Henry and Lynn Abbot make a compelling case that barbershop singing arose from the African American community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. W.C. Handy recalled that, before he attained national status as “father of the blues,” he sang tenor in what today would be called a barbershop quartet. Handy reported that quartets like his were often hired by young white suitors to serenade their girl friends with love songs. Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton, both famed jazz and blues players and singers, told stories of a capella quartet singing by African-American musicians that had no contemporary musical companion within the white community. It is also a matter of history that the commercially successful Mills Brothers quartet learned their close harmony style of singing in their father’s Ohio barbershop.
The most compelling early use of the term “barbershop” is found on the title page of the 1910 song Play That Barbershop Chord. The image on the score is of Burt Williams. At the time, Mr. Williams, an African-American, was one of the highest paid performers in America. He was considered the premier star of Broadway minstrel shows. The image of a prominent African-American performer on Play That Barbershop Chord authenticated the music as a genuine member of its genre. This same technique was used by publishers of ragtime music who invariably put images of African-Americans on their sheet music. As a side bar, one of Mr. Williams’ friends and understudies was a young juggler. That young man moved on to vaudeville and movies. We remember him as W.C. Fields.
Three major organizations support barbershop singing. Sweet Adelines International and Harmony, Inc. serve female singers. Men join The Barbershop Harmony Society. These societies have no fewer than eighty-thousand members and perform their art before millions of listeners each year.