Sonoma County's Premier Men's Chorus

Barbershop Harmony is created with nothing buy human voices coming together (a capella) in close harmony to create a rich, satisfying texture that is pleasing to the ears and invigorating to the soul.  Whether you're an experienced musician or a brand new singer, barbershop levels the playing field and creates an opportunity for you to find your voice and be part of creating something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Barbershop singing, like jazz and the spiritual, is a truly American style of music. It is a chromatic four-part harmony sung by four unaccompanied voices. In barbershop harmony, the melody is sung by the lead, while the tenor part is sung above the lead. The bass sings lower than the lead and the baritone provides the in-between notes that complete the chords that give barbershop harmony its distinctive four-part sound.  

Barbershop harmony may be sung by either a quartet or a chorus. While quartets have only four singers, choruses may number from as few as 12 to more than 100. The basic unit of the Society is the chapter. Chapter members usually sing in a chorus, but they may also sing in quartets. Quartets develop within the chapters as members become attracted to singing in the style that was promoted by the Society's founders. 

WHAT IS THE BARBERSHOP HARMONY SOCIETY?

In 1938, a small group of men gathered one evening to sing their favorite old-time songs. From this first informal meeting, and the singers' enthusiasm, grew an international organization dedicated to preserving one of America's unique song styles—barbershop harmony. 

The founders of the Barbershop Harmony Society originally named their organization the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA) as a parody of the multi-initialed government agencies that existed at the time. The original group of 26 men would take great pride in a Society that today numbers 25,000 members from the United States and Canada, with affiliated organizations in Great Britain, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands and South Africa. Other barbershop groups are singing in Israel, Japan, Wales, Spain, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia.  

The Barbershop Harmony Society is organized geographically, grouping states and provinces into 16 districts. A headquarters staff under the direction of the chief executive officer provides services to chapters, districts and Society members. The majority of Society activities are planned, organized and implemented by members who volunteer their time and talents. A Board of Directors guides the Society's development and provides leadership for the organization.  

The Santa Rosa Redwood Chordsmen is one of 770 chapters of the Barbershop Harmony Society. 

THE ORIGINS OF BARBERSHOP HARMONY

Was barbershop harmony actually sung in barbershops?

Certainly—and on street corners (it was sometimes called "curbstone" harmony) and at social functions and in parlors. Its roots are not just the white, Middle America of Norman Rockwell's famous painting. Rather, barbershop is a melting-pot product of African-American musical devices, European hymn-singing culture, and an American tradition of recreational music — a tradition the Barbershop Harmony Society continues today.

Immigrants to the new world brought with them a musical repertoire that included hymns, psalms, and folk songs. These simple songs were often sung in four parts with the melody set in the second-highest voice.

Minstrel shows of the mid-1800s often consisted of white singers in blackface (later black singers themselves) performing songs and sketches based on a romanticized vision of plantation life. As the minstrel show was supplanted by the equally popular vaudeville, the tradition of close-harmony quartets remained, often as a "four act" combining music with ethnic comedy that would be scandalous by modern standards.

The "barbershop" style of music is first associated with black southern quartets of the 1870s, such as The American Four and The Hamtown Students. The African influence is particularly notable in the improvisational nature of the harmonization, and the flexing of melody to produce harmonies in "swipes" and "snakes." Black quartets "cracking a chord" were commonplace at places like Joe Sarpy's Cut Rate Shaving Parlor in St. Louis, or in Jacksonville, Florida, where, black historian James Weldon Johnson writes, "every barbershop seemed to have its own quartet."

The first written use of the word "barbershop" when referring to harmonizing came in 1910, with the publication of the song, "Play That Barbershop Chord"—evidence that the term was in common parlance by that time. 

For more information about Barbershopping, visit our parent organization, the Barbershop Harmony Society.