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August 2009 InCider Press Page 5 |
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Harmony University 2009 officially kicked off with Society Honorary and prolific arranger of countless celebrated barbershop arrangements Dr Burt Szabo's anticipated keynote address to HU attendees. Burt shared his personal story of how he started learning music and how barbershop came to him. His love for the style grew from seeds planted when he was a young man visiting the local chapters in his area in northern Ohio, singing with "really old guys"(as he put it), and reveling in the immaculate harmonies of the day being produced by Society greats Mid States Four, Buffalo Bills, and the Schmitt Brothers. While it was the sheer joy and FUN of singing four part harmony that drew him into the hobby, it's the hope he carries for the preservation of the hobby for the future generations that drew him to express his thoughts and concerns over the past, present and future of the Society. In the face of membership decline and the Society's charge to preserve barbershop, Burt got to the heart of the matter with pointed questions. What's different about our hobby now compared to the earlier days of the Society? Is the natural evolution that's reshaping our art form necessary to ensure that future generations have access to the same joy of singing that we enjoy today? How do the excessively difficult arrangements of today help preserve the hobby if the average Joe Barbershopper is unable to even participate in performing them? While each Society member has a distinctly unique story behind how he fell in love with barbershop, there is one unifying aspect that continues to bring them back. Fun. Despite different cultures in different chapters and quartets that breed diverse motivations with varied goals for success, Burt ended his talk by simply asking, "What are YOU doing to make sure future generations can have FUN singing barbershop?" ♪ |
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Barbershop, Preservation, and Fun By Dave Fink |
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Wayne Bailie spoke at last Thursday evening with the chapter chorus members about viewing the You Tube performance of the Westminster Chorus when it performed at the ‘The Folk Choir Competition,’ Llangollen 2009. I had sent the members the website to view the performance http://www.llangollen.tv/en/clip/91 Here are some of Wayne’s thoughts that he expressed to me in an email: “I thought that it was needed to impress members of the chorus that we must do better in our image presentation to get better evaluations in contest. It may help to have it come from someone (I am likely not the best one to make that statement, but I did anyway) other than Ken. The video of the Westminster Chorus singing Shenandoah is a very good example of what we need to do. Each of us needs to really get into the music as to how it feels not only on the contest or show stage, but also as we practice.” Other barbershop harmony videos are available if you have not seen them. The International Convention performance of ‘76 Trombones’ by the Ambassadors of Harmony is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmDGntpZC3I One can see other videos of barbershop harmony (quartets and choruses) at |
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A member speaks out By Harvey Kiser |
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The members of the Silver Lining, who just happen to be one of the oldest registers quartets gathered for a picture at the Westmoreland Church Performance. They are Bob Swenson, Bill Hanson, Pete Cooper and Tom Hart. Bob believes they were registered in 1971. Pete Cooper joined them later, when the original bass Harold Oakleaf left the group. |
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Enjoy the last days of Summer. |