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home • b'shop history
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 >> barbershop history
Chuck Odom (2006) mentions the earliest reference to Barbershop origins. He reports a study of SPEBSQSA archive material showing that in Elizabethan England common folk were schooled in 4-part vocal harmony for singing in Church. Commoners met at the barbershop before Church, and the techniques of 4-part harmony were applied to popular song. This habit was taken to the USA by early immigrants. Jim Henry (2001) vividly demonstrates the African-American refinement into what we now call Barbershop. Again, people schooled in 4-part harmony in Church also adopted the practice of singing both secular songs and spirituals in the same way. These singers, it is argued, added features that are peculiar to African spiritual music: 'call and response' (also used in sea shanties); the use of improvisation around a core theme; the use of the "barbershop seventh" chord (major-minor seventh). These features cause 'barbershop' 4-part close-harmony to differ from Church music in ways similar to African-American influences on Ragtime and Blues music. The Barbershop Harmony Society was founded by O. C. Cash in 1938, and was the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbershop music as an art form. The British Association of Barbershop Singers (BABS) promotes Barbershop singing here in the UK. References: • Chuck Odom, news report in 'Harmony Express Magazine', August 2006, Issue 277. • Jim Henry, 'The Historical Roots of Barbershop Harmony', The Harmonizer magazine, June/July 2001 - read an extract and download the original article at Barbershop.org - based on the PhD of Jim Henry. Links: Jim Henry file as PDF can be downloaded here - a brief history of Barbershop Music. WikiPedia provides a comprehensive summary of Barbershop History with clear definitions of distinguishing features and technique. A-Capella Foundation - has a further article on Barbershop History. "If you play every other white key on the piano starting on G and ending on the F above it (to the right of it) you will hear a major-minor seventh chord" - Jim Henry. |
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