Short Back And Sides Of Song
The Age
Tuesday September 4, 2001
At the turn of the century, barbershops across the United States were the concert halls for men who loved to sing. A hundred years later, Melbourne is preparing for the third Pan-Pacific Barbershop Convention, the largest event of its kind ever held in Australia.
Barbershop has updated its image from men in straw boaters, red braces and bow ties singing around a lamppost, but the 1100 competitors will still enjoy sweet harmonies of old once the convention gets under way on September 13.
Four-part harmonies that sound like all they're missing is the crackle of a gramophone fill an East Doncaster church hall, as 53 members of The Melbournaires Men's Barbershop Harmony Chorus begin rehearsal.
For the past six weeks, The Melbournaires have been coached by a visiting, gold-medal-winning Canadian barbershop singer, Wally Coe, who first came across the chorus while holidaying in Australia a year ago.
"You've got to do about 600 things right to make barbershopping cook," Coe says. "You have to balance the chords, the mouth shapes. You have to sing in tune. It's a very difficult art form, but there is a sound that stirs the soul when it's ringing."
The Melbournaires date back to 1991 and a meeting of six would-be barbershop singers in a suburban lounge room.
Apart from the US and Australia, barbershop is sung in countries as diverse as Russia, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Britain. Women barbershoppers have their own federation, the Sweet Adelines Internations.
Barbershop singers try to tune every chord perfectly in relation to the note sung by the lead. When successful, a fifth, unsung note, called an overtone or ringing chord, can be heard above the other notes.
While rehearsing a few months ago, The Melbournaires shattered a light with the powerful sound of one perfectly constructed chord, but there'll be no such explosion today.
As the chorus rehearses That Barbershop Song, Coe pulls them up. "You've got to nail that face on," he says, beaming. Just as they think they've got it, Coe cuts them short again. "You've got to sing slick as a whistle," he exclaims, leaping around the room exuberantly.
Everything has to be right for mid-September, when the three-day convention begins.
THE Melbournaires will be competing against choirs and quartets from across the country, as well as the US, Japan and New Zealand.
A quick scan of the choristers reveals a tapestry of young and old faces, crew cuts, ponytails, bald pates and grey heads. Men from all walks of life: university lecturers, dentists, a horse wrangler and everything else in between.
Musical director James Wettenhall is the youngest member of the chorus. The 25yearold PhD Engineering student saw an ad for The Melbournaires on his university lecturer's door two years ago and came along to a rehearsal.
``Of all the musical groups I've been in, I probably feel the most comfortable here. The sound of barbershop gives an amazing experience," Wettenhall says.
The sense of camaraderie is fantastic, he adds, and extends beyond rehearsal time.
``The other thing is that we aim to entertain," says chorus president Roger Archman. ``We don't stand there like stale bottles. We can move and express ourselves."
The Melbournaires sway to their own rhythm in electricblue waistcoats, matching bow ties, white shirts and black slacks, latterday ambassadors for a pastime from a more innocent time when to hit the right notes was significant part of a young man's life.
Across town, five trendy youths from Scotch College share the Melbournaires love of harmony, if not their dress sense. Last Friday, the boys opened the school's 150th anniversary concert at the Rod Laver Arena with a barbershop version of the national anthem.
They first began singing barbershop when a past student started a group a year ago and they are not fazed by what their mates think. ``They take the piss a bit because it seems a bit of a daggy thing to do, although the attitude is getting much better," says 18yearold Alex Davie. It seems strange these teenagers with slick haircuts and musical interests ranging from hiphop to punk would be interested in singing the same vowelstretching songs sung by men their grandfathers' age. ``We started off as a `hardcore' barbershop group," says Julian Sheriff to a huge laugh from his friends, explaining the groups repertoire in modern terms. ``Now we have diversified what we sing."
Barbershop could almost be in danger of finding itself in vogue again. Cartoon character Homer Simpson was a member of The Be Sharps quartet and barbershop is now part of the VCE Music curriculum. Scotch College is just one of the schools taking part in The Melbournaires youth barbershop program, which organises competitions and workshops for young people several times a year.
Jazz masters such as Bing Crosby, Cole Porter and Louis Armstrong got their first taste of performing as barbershop quartet singers. Tenyearold Armstrong sang for his supper in a boys' quartet on the streets of New Orleans. Barbershop singing spread like wildfire across the US in the early 1900s, but the beginning of radio brought the close harmony style to a halt as jazz rhythms and melodies for dancing became popular.
In 1938, O.C. Cash and Rupert Hall, two men from Oklahoma nostalgic for fourpart harmonies, invited their friends to a song fest on the roof garden of the Tulsa Club. Twentysix men attended the first meeting and by the third, the number had grown to 150.
Cash's knack for publicity spread the word around the US and barbershop groups were quickly formed across the country.
However, right now, all eyes are on the preparations for the international competition.
A musical welcome beckons for the arrival of the Tokyo Barbers at Melbourne Airport on September 12, followed the next day by Mass Sing, a singalong with 650 other barbershoppers on the lawn between the Melbourne Concert Hall and State Theatre. As the rehearsal draws to a close, the tired but happy faces reflect in the sparkle of their waistcoats. Overhead, 10 whole neon lights and one with a cracked light bulb frame hang firmly from the ceiling.
• The Third PanPacific Barbershop Convention will be held at the Melbourne Concert Hall.
© 2001 The Age