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24-431: Classic Collection is the barbershop quartet that won the 1982 SPEBSQSA international competition. Members of the quartet are: Curt Hutchison, tenor; Larry Wilson, lead; George Davidson, baritone and Terry Heltne, bass. This article about a barbershop quartet is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Barbershop quartet A barbershop quartet is a group of four singers who sing music in

48-509: A tenor 's range in Classical repertoire, often being more in the range of the classical countertenor range. Lead: The lead, often a lower or second tenor or even more recently a higher or lighter baritone, usually sings the main melody . Baritone: The baritone often completes the chord with a medium voice, usually slightly below the lead, but sometimes above it. While the baritone's part by itself does not sound as "melodious" as

72-528: A Homburg, such as a smart lounge suit, or with black tie. John Jacob Astor IV was known for wearing such hats. Actors Harold Lloyd and Maurice Chevalier were also famous for their trademark boater hats. Inexpensive foam or plastic boaters are sometimes seen at political rallies in the United States . In the United Kingdom , Australia , and South Africa the boater is still a part of

96-419: A general rule, barbershop quartets use a TTBB (tenor—tenor—baritone—bass) arrangement, with the second tenor singing the lead. Since the 1940s, barbershop singers have tuned their seventh chords with just intonation to maximize the overtones , yielding a distinctive "ringing" sound. Tenor: The tenor generally harmonizes above the lead, making the part the highest in the quartet. So as not to overpower

120-409: A stiff flat crown and brim, typically with a solid or striped grosgrain ribbon around the crown. Boaters were derived from the canotier straw hat worn traditionally by gondoliers in the city of Venice . The Venetian canotier has a ribbon that hangs freely off the back, and they are frequently edged with a matching color ribbon. Because of this, boaters were identified with boating or sailing, hence

144-426: The barbershop style , characterized by four-part harmony without instrumental accompaniment, or a cappella . The four voices are: the lead , the vocal part which typically carries the melody ; a bass , the part which provides the bass line to the melody; a tenor , the part which harmonizes above the lead; and a baritone , the part that frequently completes the chord . The baritone normally sings just below

168-497: The tag end of two others, are: In competition, barbershop quartets generally wear coordinated outfits to mark them as members of the same group. The Society Contest and Judging Committee of the Barbershop Harmony Society notes in their rule book that aesthetics are important to competitive success: "The judge responds to both the vocal and visual aspects of the performance, but the judge principally evaluates

192-454: The "carreiros" of Madeira , the drivers of the traditional wicker toboggans carrying visitors from the parish church at Monte down towards Funchal centre. Coco Chanel was fond of wearing boaters and made them fashionable among women during the early 20th century. Boater hats of the late 19th century fin de siècle until World War I usually had wider brims than those afterwards. The narrower style that came into fashion following WWI

216-500: The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. Barbershop quartets have been featured in popular culture in musical theater productions such as The Music Man , or lampooned in television series such as The Simpsons and Family Guy . While many sources claim that barbershop singing originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in

240-549: The United States of America, some maintain that the origins of barbershop singing are "obscure". The style is considered a blend of White and African American musical styles. Although the African American influence is sometimes overlooked, these quartets had a formative role in the development of the style. By the 1920s, the popularity of the style had begun to fade. It was revived in the late 1930s along with

264-837: The founding of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA), now known as the Barbershop Harmony Society , or BHS. The society's first meeting was held at the Tulsa Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on April 11, 1938, and it was open only to male singers. In 1945, a parallel organization for women was also founded in Tulsa, called Sweet Adelines International (SAI). Harmony, Incorporated (HI), also serving women,

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288-636: The interaction of those aspects as they work together to create the image of the song." Traditionally, barbershop quartet attire consisted of: vest, straw hat , and spats, often with bow tie and sleeve garters; this is known as the Gay Nineties style. In popular culture, this style exemplifies the stereotypical barbershop quartet. Several Walt Disney theme parks feature a dedicated barbershop quartet called The Dapper Dans (Disney World version pictured). The outfits worn by these performers vary depending on location but do feature vests and straw hats. As

312-485: The lead singer, sometimes just above as the harmony requires. Barbershop music is typified by close harmony — the upper three voices generally remain within one octave of each other. While the traditional barbershop quartet included only male singers, contemporary quartets can include any gender combination. All-female barbershop quartets were often called beauty shop quartets , a term that has fallen out of favor. The voice parts for women's and mixed barbershop groups use

336-450: The lead singer, who carries the tune, the part is often sung in falsetto , which is of a softer quality than singing in the modal register , though some quartets do make use of tenors with a softer full voice quality. Notable examples of barbershop quartets which made use of the full-voiced tenor include The Buffalo Bills and Boston Common . The range of a tenor in barbershop music does not necessarily closely correspond to that of

360-483: The mid-1900s; however, as late as 1963, Straw and Felt Hat Day were commemorated in an editorial in The New York Times . In some cities, the convention was forcefully observed by young men who would seize and destroy any straw hat worn after the appointed day. On a number of stock exchange floors, traders wore straw hats with the deliberate intention of getting them destroyed. The term "straw hat day"

384-404: The name. Boaters were also identified more with sporting events and universities as well. They were also worn by women, often with hatpins to keep them in place. Nowadays they are rarely seen except at sailing or rowing events, period-related theatrical and musical performances (e.g. barbershop music ) or as part of old-fashioned school uniforms . Since 1952, the straw boater hat has been part of

408-402: The other three, the baritone is a fundamental role in the quartet to filling in the missing notes and giving each chord a fuller sound. Bass: The bass always sings and harmonizes the lowest notes , often setting the root of the chord for root position chords, or singing the lowest note of the chord for inverted chords . Boater It is normally made of stiff sennit straw and has

432-408: The same names as those for male groups since the roles perform similar functions in the quartet although the vocal ranges may be different. While the regional origins of barbershop quartet singing are not wholly agreed upon, current organizations that promote the style typify it as an "old American institution." While the style is most popular in the United States, barbershop organizations exist in

456-423: The school uniform in some very prestigious boys' schools, such as at Harrow School , Uppingham School , Shore School , Brisbane Boys' College , Knox Grammar School , Maritzburg College , Potchefstroom High School for Boys , South African College School , St John's College , Wynberg Boys' High School , Parktown Boys' High School and numerous Christian Brothers schools . The boater may also be seen worn by

480-607: The uniform of the Princeton University Band , notably featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated Magazine in October 1955. Recently , soft, thin straw hats with the approximate shape of a boater have been in fashion among women. The boater is a semi-formal hat, equivalent in formality to the Homburg . As such, it is correctly worn either in its original setting with a blazer , or in the same situations as

504-473: Was established in Rhode Island in 1959. In 1971, president of BHS Ralph Ribble launched the "Barberpole Cat Program" to encourage barbershop singing as widely as possible. Well-known and popular barbershop songs were published and promoted in order to provide a core set of pieces for barbershop quartets. The current list of 12 songs, commonly known as "polecats", was selected in 1987. These songs, plus

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528-741: Was seen as a sign of the beginning of summer. The exact date of Straw Hat Day might vary slightly from place to place or even within a city. For example, in Philadelphia , it was generally May 15, but the University of Pennsylvania (located in Philadelphia) observed the change on the second Saturday in May. Its cold-weather counterpart was "Felt Hat Day", occurring in September or October. The practice of wearing formal hats largely disappeared by

552-616: Was specifically known in Germany by the colloquial term Kreissäge ("circular saw"), whereas the official German term for it was (Florentiner) Strohhut ("(Florentine) straw hat"). Being made of straw, the boater was and is generally regarded as a warm-weather hat. In the days when all men in Western Europe and the US wore hats when out of doors, "Straw Hat Day", the day when men switched from wearing their winter hats to their summer hats,

576-542: Was used in that era to refer both to the day of their adoption, at the beginning of summer, and their destruction, at the end. In 1922 in New York City, the tradition escalated into the Straw Hat Riot , which lasted eight days, involved a mob of 1,000 young hat destroyers at its peak, and resulted in a number of arrests and injuries. Broken boater hats were sometimes worn for comedy effect. Bud Flanagan of

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