Songs From The Barbershop
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday August 6, 1997
If you sing naturally and can hold a tune, you too could be a barbershop singer.
With voices raised in harmony, barbershop quartets and choruses do it all for the love of the song, and, in September, will indulge in a little friendly rivalry to find the best barbershoppers in Australia.
Barbershop singing originated in the United States, said Patrick Dunch, who sings with The Broadway Chorus at Lindfield. "The men used to hang around waiting for a shave and a haircut and they used to sing ... They'd develop harmonies."
This
continued for many years, but began to die out early this century "as people lost the knack of entertaining themselves", Mr Dunch said.
In the '30s, an enterprising American from Tulsa, Oklahoma, decided it was time to do something before the art form was lost.
"He was sad about the fact that the art of making your own entertainment was dying out as a result of vaudeville, music hall and movies."
It's a "segregated sport", Mr Dunch said, with women calling themselves The Sweet Adelines.
Songs such as Sweet Adeline, My Wild Irish Rose and Let Me Call You Sweetheart are sung a cappella -style in four-part harmony, unaccompanied.
"You have a lead singer, who carries the melody, a high tenor, a base and a baritone."
Mr Dunch, 61, and a former journalist, comes from a musical family and has sung all his life.
"You don't have to read music," he said. "There are no prerequisites, except to be able to hold pitch and to have a voice that goes up and down at the right time."
Choruses vary in size from a small chorus of 20 to as big as 120.
"The songs are nice. They are generally well known songs. The words are easy to learn, the sentiment is nice. They are usually romantic or emotional in some way and there's a great deal of satisfaction from standing there with three other guys - or a whole chorus of guys - and making nice sounds."
Between 700 and 800 delegates from all over Australia will take part in the national championships with guest groups attending from the United Kingdom, New Zealand and America. Forty quartets and 18 choruses will vie for the bronze, silver and gold medals awarded every two years to the best barbershoppers.
The public will be treated to a massed sing, performed by 550 singers on the forecourt at Darling Harbour at 12.30 pm on Friday September 12.
Tickets to the concert, featuring the award-winning quartets and choruses on Saturday September 13 are available from Ticketek.
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald