Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 1

“What Are We Trying to Preserve?” Vernacular Music Theory in the Barbershop Harmony Society

In the summer of 2017, the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS), the leading international organization for barbershop singing, announced their new strategic vision, “Everyone in Harmony.”1

Society leadership declared to their all-male and overwhelmingly white membership that “[f]irst and foremost, we must unequivocally turn away from any cultural vestiges of exclusion.”2 To this end, a year later in 2018, the BHS opened up membership to women ​[Video Clip #1]:​

On behalf of the Barbershop Harmony Society Board of Directors, I’m thrilled to announce our next step in the realization of our strategic vision, “Everyone in Harmony.” Everyone means EVERYONE – people of every age, of every background, every gender identity, every race, every sexual orientation, every political opinion or spiritual belief. Every person who loves to harmonize has a place in our family. Effective immediately, membership in the Barbershop Harmony Society is open to ​everyone.​ 3

Given that the BHS was an all-male institution for the eighty years prior, this announcement is one of the most substantial changes that has been made in the Society’s history. However, it is not the first of its kind: in 1963, when the Society was still known as the Society for the Preservation and

Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, or SPEBSQSA, they responded to pressures from the civil rights movement by allowing men of color to join as members. Therefore, the

Society’s journey away from their practice of racial and gender segregation has been decades in the making. Yet the question remains: how is the changing social culture of the BHS reflected in the musical aesthetics it values?

1 “Everyone in Harmony,” Barbershop Harmony Society, accessed June 19, 2020, https://www.barbershop.org/about/everyone​. 2 “Everyone in Harmony” Strategic Vision, July 3, 2017, Barbershop Harmony Society, 14, https://files.barbershop.org/PDFs/EiH/BHS_StratPlan_VisionDocument_AsApprovedUpdated_170703.pdf.​ 3 “BHS announces the next phase in Everyone in Harmony,” Barbershop Harmony Society, June 13, 2018, video, https://youtu.be/uf5Jh-34FFU.​ Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 2

In this paper I examine how music theory has historically been utilized within the BHS to influence and affirm the Society’s social values, in particular as it relates to racial discrimination. In my historical reconstruction of the BHS’s social culture, I build upon previous scholarship on barbershop music; especially that of Liz Garnett, who asserts that “[t]he music that [barbershoppers] meet together to make is both a symbol of and a medium through which they construct and negotiate social values, and these values, in turn, provide the discourses through which they understand their musical praxis.”4 Consequently, it stands to reason that barbershop music would be a medium through which the social value of racial discrimination is negotiated. As evidence, I cite Society-published style treatises, which are prime examples of what I term “vernacular music theory”: music-theoretical work that is carried out by practitioners of the style who possess insider knowledge of their communities.

While the academy would not traditionally consider these practitioners to be music theorists, their work nonetheless determines the rules of the barbershop style for an entire community of musicians.

I begin by outlining how the BHS came to produce its early definitions of the barbershop style, from the Society’s founding in 1938 through the 1950s. I illustrate that the barbershop style as practiced within the BHS is an “invented tradition,” meaning that not all of what they claim to be preserving is consistent with earlier barbershop traditions. I then demonstrate how the Society’s political agenda during the civil rights movement factored into how musical style was taught.

Furthermore, I show how traces of these racist ideologies lingered past the Society’s racial integration in 1963, as many members still sought to “keep it barbershop.” Returning to the present day, I briefly consider instances of gender discrimination that have arisen during the “Everyone in Harmony” era. I conclude by arguing that the BHS serves as a case study for how music theory can be used by

4 Liz Garnett, 2005, ​The British Barbershopper: A Study in Socio-Musical Values ​ (Burlington, VT: Ashgate), 19. Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 3 institutions to (intentionally and unintentionally) preserve​ hierarchies and power structures, often at the expense of ​diversity and inclusion.

Though SPEBSQSA was founded in 1938 with the mission to preserve the barbershop style, the Society did not yet have an agreed-upon definition of what constituted barbershop music. One obstacle to this was that barbershop singing was not wholly distinct from other forms of close-harmony singing popular at the time. Nonetheless, three years later in 1941, a few leading figures in the Society came together to craft a definition: future Society President Frank Thorne, and future

Vice Presidents Maurice Reagan and C.T. “Deac” Martin. They worked as a business executive, an engineer, and a public relations manager, respectively; and none of them had degrees in music.5 Yet, together they produced the Society’s first concise definition of the style, the seed of vernacular music theory to come:

Barbershop harmony is produced by four voices unaccompanied—when the melody is consistently sung below the tenor—when rules of time, expression and word theme are sacrificed to obtain blending harmony satisfaction—usually with at least one harmonizing chord on each melody note.6

Barbershop scholar Robert Hopkins breaks this definition into five components that still endure to this day: “(1) four-part a cappella harmony, (2) a harmonizing part above the melody, (3) a performance style freed from strict attention to meter and exact note values, (4) emphasis on blending voices, and, usually, (5) consonant chords for each melody note.”7 An example of a barbershop tune

5 SPEBSQSA, 1956, “Frank Thorne, Society’s Sixth president, Dies,” ​Harmonizer​ 16, no. 4: 4–5; Phil Embury, 1977, “A Tribute to Maurice E. Reagan – Mr. Barbershopper,” H​ armonizer​ 37, no. 4: 6–7; SPEBSQSA, 1970, “Deac (C.T.) Martin,” ​Harmonizer ​ 30, no. 5: 22. 6 Maurice E. Reagan, 1944, “Barbershop Harmony Defined,” Harmonizer 3, no. 4: 10. Also included in Frank Thorne, 1955, “The Way I See It,” H​ armonizer ​15, no. 1: 14. 7 Robert G. Hopkins, 2020, “From ‘the Chord Was King’ to ‘a Dynamic Journey’: Changes in the Barbershop Quartet Style in Contests Since the 1950s,” A​ merican Music ​ 38, no. 1: 82. Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 4 that fits this description is “Sincere” from ​The Music Man;​ here’s an excerpt from the original 1957 recording by the international champion quartet the Buffalo Bills ​[Audio Clip #1].​

Many BHS members would argue that these qualities are what the Society must preserve.

Garnett, however, argues that the musical tradition that has been preserved by the Society is not completely authentic, but rather “invented.” Garnett cites historian Eric Hobsbawm’s concept of the

“invented tradition,” which he defines as “a set of practices [...] which seeks to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past.”8 Garnett asserts that “[t]his conception of invented traditions acts as a strong explanatory category for many aspects of barbershop culture, at the levels of both discourses and practices.”9 One example of this is the concept of “lock and ring,” when chords are sung and tuned in such a way that overtones are produced. While “lock and ring” is now considered to be fundamental to the barbershop style, it was not an agreed-upon stylistic trait until several years after the Society’s founding.10 A more cultural example is that Society publications ignored the barbershop style’s roots in popular music associated with Black Americans, instead opting for a solely Western European lineage. Furthermore, they placed barbershop music in opposition to Black genres such as spirituals, ragtime, and jazz, while simultaneously denying Black Americans membership to the Society. These examples demonstrate that within the BHS, the definition of the barbershop style has always been malleable, allowing for the

Society to shift conceptions of what it is they’re trying to preserve, in order to better align with their social values.

8 Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, 1983, ​The Invention of Tradition ​ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1. 9 Garnett, T​ he British Barbershopper​, 42. 10 “Gage Averill’s comprehensive history of the genre, meanwhile, has shown the concept of ‘lock and ring’, which [...] is now considered integral to the style, did not appear in Society literature until a few years after its inception.” Garnett, T​ he British Barbershopper,​ 43. Also see Gage Averill, ​2003, F​ our Parts, No Waiting: A Social History of American Barbershop Harmony ​ (New York: Oxford University Press), 164–66. Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 5

The civil rights movement brought about a unique set of challenges for the Society. As early as

1948, some barbershoppers were anxious about the Society losing track of its founding principle of stylistic preservation. The aforementioned Reagan, now Chairman of the Judging Committee, notified members that “[w]e are pledged to preserve barbershop harmony which is characterized by a definite voice arrangement to make the chords.”11 By 1957, the slogan “keep it barbershop” was invoked regularly within the Society to police the musical and cultural borders of the style as members became increasingly interested in performing popular, non-barbershop arrangements.12

In 1961, the Society published an A​ rranger’s Manual​ to be taught at their inaugural Harmony

Education Program.13 The manual was written by two giants in the world of barbershop: Willis

Diekema, a college-educated musician-turned-banker and the composer of the Society’s motto song

“Keep America Singing”; and Reagan, who by this point many believed to be “the last word on matters of harmony.”14 They each wrote one half of the manual, the Society’s first serious endeavor into formalizing the style, and their first large-form example of vernacular music theory. The vast majority of the manual’s content is straightforward and technical: advice is given on how to start an arrangement, harmonize a melody, etc. The opening of Reagan’s half of the manual, however, strikes a very different chord. Here, he outlines what he believes to be at stake in the preservation of the barbershop style:

The name of the Society​ [the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America]​ pledges its members to ​preserve ​​and encourage a certain type of harmony. We should, therefore, be extremely faithful to our style, and not let it become tainted​ with other forms​. When [founder] O.C. Cash and his friends in Tulsa started the

11 Maurice E. Reagan, 1948, “Changes and Rulings in Judging Contests,” ​Harmonizer ​ 7, no. 3: 3–5. 12 For example, see Bill “Buz” Busby, 1957, “Let’s Keep It Barbershop!”, H​ armonizer​ 17, no. 3: 46; J.D. “Jerry” Beeler, 1957, “We Must Keep It Barbershop,” ​Harmonizer ​ 17, no. 4: 28; and C.T. “Deac” Martin, 1957, “We Must Keep It Barbershop,” H​ armonizer ​ 17, no. 3: 23. 13 Willis A. Diekema and Maurice E. Reagan, 1961, A​ rranger’s Manual ​ (Kenosha, WI: SPEBSQSA). The inaugural Harmony Education Program was held from August 24–27, 1961 at St. Mary’s College in Winona, Minnesota. 14 Deac C.T. Martin, 1948, K​ eep America Singing​ (Kenosha, WI: SPEBSQSA): 56. Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 6

S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. in 1938, they wisely inserted the word “​ Preservation”,​ since that was one of the prime goals of the organization. In spite of this, there are some who try to change it. We have no quarrel with them as long as they ​stay in their own musical backyards​​. There are merits in all kinds of music. To distinguish between musical styles or types each must be ​pure ​and​ ​undiluted ​by others. Otherwise we attempt to compare ​cross-breeds.​15

The bolded terms and phrases were used during the first half of the twentieth century in discussions surrounding miscegenation, race science, and segregation. Take, for example, the theme of

“purity.” U.S. historian Peggy Pascoe writes that “race scientists [...] posited a finite number of ‘pure’ races and insisted that races needed to be protected from intermixture, which was deemed to be a catastrophic mistake.”16 The desire to maintain the purity of the white race and of white spaces bears an uncanny resemblance to the desire to preserve the barbershop style and maintain its purity as an art form. What’s more, archival documents prove that in the 1950s and early 1960s, SPEBSQSA was highly invested in both musical and racial forms of purity.

As did many American fraternal organizations at the time, the Society fought to remain racially segregated. In particular, they sought to keep Black men, or “Negroes,” out at all costs. In

1956, when considering a change to the Society’s membership restrictions, Vice President John Salin insisted that “[t]here seems to be no question about the exclusion of the Negroid Race. […] My personal feeling is that the Negro has been and still is handling his racial problem very stupidly, referring to the manner [in] which he is trying to forcibly inject himself into the affairs of other races, particularly the white race.”17 Others went as far as to refer to the threat of “Negro” members as the

15 ​Arranger’s Manual,​ 84 (emphasis mine). 16 Peggy Pascoe, 2009, ​What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America​ (New York: Oxford University Press), 33. 17 Letter from John W. Salin (International Vice President) to Ken Booth (International Associate Secretary), Executive Committee cc’d, July 12, 1956. (All correspondence is located in the Harmony Hall Archival Collection [BHS headquarters].) Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 7

“Black Plague.”18 Furthermore, in 1951, Past President Thorne argued that if the Society were forced to integrate, “[o]ur Southern members would surely secede and [...] one of them might well sue to try and stop our departure from t​ he basis on which this society was founded​.”19

Bearing in mind the Society’s founding tenet of preservation, it is notable that Thorne believed that admitting “Negroes” would be a departure from this presumably m​ usical​ objective. The view that singing with “Negroes” was antithetical to the barbershop style ​was also shared by other members:​ for example, i​ n a 1963 letter, Executive Director Barrie Best wrote that “[o]ur style of harmony is not instinctive or natural to them. Blues, jazz, dixieland and spirituals are a more natural type of harmony and music to the negro.”20 The rhetoric of what is “inherent” and “natural” communicates the belief that Whites and “Negroes” are musically incompatible on a cultural, or perhaps even biological, level.

Returning to the A​ rranger’s Manual​, Reagan writes that “[w]e have no quarrel with them,” the ​non-​ preservationists, “as long as they stay in their own musical backyards​.” This expression is not just any turn of phrase, but a reference to the song “Stay in Your Own Backyard,” originally published in 1899 and published by the Society as a barbershop arrangement in 1956. As the lyrics show, the song is about Black Americans “knowing their place” in the American social hierarchy, a very familiar concept at the time. The text highlighted in blue is the opening of the chorus, which I’ll play for you all(—and please note that this is not a barbershop recording, since there isn’t one publically available)

[Audio Clip #2]:​

Now honey you stay in your own backyard Don’t mind what them white chiles do What show you ‘spose dey’s gwine to give a black little coon like you?

18 “My love for the S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. is too great to sit idle & find the ‘Black Plague’ stepping in our direction.” Letter from SPEBSQSA member to Robert G. Hafer (Executive Director), July 19, 1958. 19 Letter from Frank H. Thorne (Past International President) to James F. Knipe (International President), several Society officials cc’d, November 19, 1951 (emphasis mine). 20 Letter from Barrie Best (Executive Director) to SPEBSQSA member, April 3, 1963. Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 8

It is virtually impossible that Reagan, one of the Society’s premier arrangers, did not have this song in mind when writing his manifesto. All of this evidence helps confirm that racist ideologies were intertwined with Reagan’s preservationist beliefs regarding the barbershop style. Moreover, these entanglements impacted how barbershop arranging was taught to SPEBSQSA members for years, if not decades.

In a tactic mirroring states’ rights policies, in 1963 the Society officially became open to men of all races on a “local option” basis, meaning that chapters could decide for themselves if they wanted to accept men of color. But this did not mean that the Society’s philosophy surrounding barbershop arranging had suddenly changed. In fact, in 1977 the Society decided to enact a formal “Keep It

Barbershop” policy, declaring that “[i]t is essential that all quartets and choruses set the example by singing barbershop harmony in all non-contest performances,” and that “[t]he Society will immediately institute an educational program of ‘keeping it barbershop[.]’”21 Here we find the educational mission of the 1961 ​Arranger’s Manual​ being extended for nearly two decades. This is also evident in the 1980 B​ arbershop Arranging Manual,​ a largely expanded version of its 1961 predecessor. Though it contains explanations and arranging techniques not found in the 1961 manual, the 1980 manual nonetheless states that “it is important to ‘keep it barbershop,’” and that barbershoppers have “a responsibility to the style.”22 For example, regarding rhythm and meter, the manual declares that “exotic” or “culture-oriented” rhythms are “non-stylistic” and “not representative of barbershop.”23

21 “Keep It Barbershop” Policy, 1977, located in the Harmony Hall Archival Collection (BHS headquarters). 22 Szabo, Burt and Dave Stevens, eds., 1980, ​Barbershop Arranging Manual ​ (Kenosha, WI: SPEBSQSA), 403. 23 “...non-stylistic rhythms would include [...] rhythms of Latin origin such as the rumba, samba, bossa nova and other wonderful, exotic rhythms that have nothing to do with barbershop. [...] culture-oriented rhythm patterns tend to take over, dominate, and relegate a song’s message and harmony to relative unimportance, and so are not considered good songs Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 9

This belief that barbershoppers have a responsibility to the style was most famously expressed in the 1983 keynote address at Harmony College, the successor of the Harmony Education Program.

Many within the Society consider this keynote required viewing. Speaker Dave Stevens, who also co-edited the 1980 manual, said the following about the preservation of the barbershop style ​[Video

Clip #2]:​

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to come back in a couple of hundred years(,) and listen to what the guys are singing? Wouldn’t it be t​ errible​ to come back and visit a chapter of the future and not recognize anything that’s going on? It would mean we would’ve lost this thing(,) finally, once and for all—and some of you are tryin’. You know, and that’s not nice; it’s not friendly. We all have a little responsibility to the future, whether we think so or not. This is a b​ arbershop society, and when we come back in a couple of hundred years and we’ve been smart, we’ve saved some of this for future generations.24

By citing the “Keep It Barbershop” policy and Stevens’s keynote address, I don’t mean to criticize the

Society’s desire to preserve the barbershop style. But as I have demonstrated with various sources, the preservation of the style is deeply intertwined with the Society’s history of discriminatory social practices. Yes, the Society became racially integrated in 1963, but through their musical style they have been unknowingly preserving the racist ideologies that were rampant in their culture for decades. ​As

Garnett has demonstrated, the social culture of the BHS is inextricably linked to its musical praxis; therefore, if the praxis stays the same, how much is the social culture actually changing?

On this note, I would like to briefly return to the “Everyone in Harmony” initiative, in particular as it relates to gender. Women have been interested in barbershop as long as men have, as is demonstrated by the founding of the first women’s barbershop organization, the Sweet Adelines, in

1945, only seven years after SPEBSQSA. In 2018, the BHS decided to allow women to join their ranks,

for barbershop.” ​Barbershop Arranging Manual​, 53. “The ‘exotic’ rhythms, and those rhythms which developed largely from other cultures are not representative of barbershop.” B​ arbershop Arranging Manual,​ 56. 24 Dave Stevens, 1983, “What Are We Trying to Preserve?”, Harmony College keynote address. Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 10 and many members have been excited by this development—but there are several ways that the vernacular music theory of the BHS community is currently unequipped for this change.

First, the BHS has yet to publish style treatises that include arranging methods for women’s and mixed ensembles. The shared perspective of several of the arrangers that I have spoken with is that arranging for women’s or mixed ensembles only requires a bit of transposition and some rearranging of voices. While this may be true in many cases, the underlying problem is that men’s arranging is viewed as the model and arranging involving women’s voices is viewed as the variant. This stems in part from the evangelist, if not colonialist, tenet of the “Everyone in Harmony” initiative: that “the world needs what they have,” rather than the possibility for the BHS to learn from the communities that it has excluded for decades.25 Second, in my fieldwork I have observed a bias that women’s barbershop is more shrill than men’s barbershop. This is most often explained as a consequence of not having a lower bass voice to serve as a fundamental for the upper voices. Some members used the overtone series as scientific proof for why women’s barbershop is inherently inferior to men’s, and there are numerous

Society-published texts on the subject of the overtone series that serve as fodder for this sexist thinking.

26 Third, the BHS’s new Contest Expansion Plan does not allow for women’s and mixed ensembles to compete against men’s ensembles.27 The fact that there will be three separate winners and no direct competition between the different categories has led many BHS members to view the plan as yet another iteration of “separate but equal” policies in the history of American barbershop singing.

25 “This gift of harmony that our founders stumbled into, this gift that we have been entrusted with preserving and encouraging, this gift of the alchemy and joy of singing together, is too wonderful for us to keep to ourselves. [...] We need to share it with young and old, with people of every color and every strata, with city people and country people and everyone in between, ​because the world needs what we have.​” “Everyone in Harmony” Strategic Vision, 4 (emphasis in original). 26 For example, see B​ arbershop Arranging Manual​, 25 (included in slideshow presentation). 27 “Everyone in Harmony: International Contest Expansion Plan,” December 2019, Barbershop Harmony Society,​,h​ ttps://barbershop-org.s3.amazonaws.com/Strategic-Vision/Contest-Expansion/Contest-Expansion-Plan_-Dece mber-2019-3.pdf​. Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 11

There is more that could be said about the “Everyone in Harmony” initiative, but I would like to conclude by reflecting on the relationship between vernacular music theory and academic practices of music theory. Vernacular music remains understudied in the field of music theory, due to both a general devaluing of music outside of the Western canon, as well as a devaluing of music-theoretical work carried out by those who exist outside of the academy. My research, therefore, contributes to recent efforts to redefine what counts as music theory, and what musical traditions are worthy of music-theoretical study. Furthermore, this paper connects with Philip Ewell’s work on the white racial frame in music theory. Ewell contends that “there exists a figurative and [...] deep-seated whiteness in music theory,” and warns us of the myth that “institutions and structures of music theory have little or nothing to do with race or whiteness[.]”28 In this paper, I have demonstrated the inaccuracy of that myth by considering a musical style that is inseparable from U.S. racial and gender politics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Ultimately, I believe that the BHS serves as a powerful case study for how institutions, including our very own SMT, utilize music-theoretical knowledge to preserve ​ hierarchies and power structures, despite recent initiatives to promote ​diversity and inclusion. Thank you.29

28 Philip A. Ewell, 2020, “Music Theory and the White Racial Frame,” ​Music Theory Online​ 26, no. 2: paragraphs 1.1 and 2.4, ​https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.20.26.2/mto.20.26.2.ewell.html​. 29 This research was generously supported by a Grand Central Red Caps Scholarship from the Barbershop Harmony Society and a Margery Morgan Lowens Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Society for American Music. Society for Music Theory 2020 Annual Meeting | Boyd 12

Selected Bibliography

Averill, Gage. 2003. F​ our Parts, No Waiting: A Social History of American Barbershop Harmony.​ New York: Oxford University Press. Diekema, Willis A. and Maurice E. Reagan. 1961. A​ rranger’s Manual​. Kenosha, WI: SPEBSQSA. Ewell, Philip A. 2020. “Music Theory and the White Racial Frame.” ​Music Theory Online​ 26, no. 2. Garnett, Liz. 2005. T​ he British Barbershopper: A Study in Socio-Musical Values​. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Harmony Hall Archival Collection. Barbershop Harmony Society, Nashville, TN. Hopkins, Robert G. 2020. “From ‘the Chord Was King’ to ‘a Dynamic Journey’: Changes in the Barbershop Quartet Style in Contests Since the 1950s.” A​ merican Music​ 38, no. 1: 78–101. Martin, Deac C.T. 1948. ​Keep America Singing.​ Kenosha, WI: SPEBSQSA. Pascoe, Peggy. 2009. ​What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America.​ New York: Oxford University Press. Szabo, Burt. 1976. ​Theory of Barbershop Harmony​. Kenosha, WI: SPEBSQSA. Szabo, Burt and Dave Stevens, eds. 1980. ​Barbershop Arranging Manual.​ Kenosha, WI: SPEBSQSA. Wolcott, Victoria W. 2012. ​Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters: The Struggle over Segregated Recreation in America​. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.