The Barbershop Style of Singing Offers Many Tools to Enhance the Knowledge and Skills of the Classically Trained Singer
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A COMPARISON OF BARBERSHOP AND CLASSICAL SINGING: SELECTED CROSSOVER VOCAL TECHNIQUES FOR THE CURIOUS PERFORMER by Daniel Thomas Lentz Submitted to the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree, Doctor of Music Indiana University May 2021 Accepted by the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Music Doctoral Committee Daniel Melamed, Research Director Patricia Stiles, Chair Wolfgang Brendel Mary Ann Hart April 30, 2021 ii Copyright © 2021 Daniel Thomas Lentz iii To my many mentors. iv A Comparison of Barbershop and Classical Singing: Selected Crossover Vocal Techniques for the Curious Performer The barbershop style of singing offers many tools to enhance the knowledge and skills of the classically trained singer. And the barbershop singer can learn from the training a classical singer would receive at a music school or in private lessons. By studying both forms of singing, a performer can expand his or her arsenal of ways to express and communicate an idea. The African American historical roots of barbershop singing and European historical traditions of classical opera singing can commingle to help modern day classical performers gain beneficial skills, especially concerning improvisation. A newcomer to barbershop singing may discover that singing techniques already learned in classical singing can be utilized in barbershop singing as well. The techniques of overtone reinforcement and vowel matching used in barbershop singing can aid the classical singer’s understanding of intonation, resonance, and beauty of sound. Through experimentation with the voice parts in barbershop, a classically trained singer can discover and narrow the determination of his or her own voice type, thus empowering him or her to choose repertoire better suited to his or her voice. Many performance practices from the classical bel canto school of singing are transferable to barbershop, and vice versa. A classical singer can learn performance-enhancing techniques from barbershop coaches and judges in competitions. By investigating historical roots and current practices of both classical and barbershop singing, a singer can gain enlightening concepts for the improvement of his or her performance craft. v Table of Contents A Comparison of Barbershop and Classical Singing: Selected Crossover Vocal Techniques for the Curious Performer ............................................................................................................................ v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ vi List of Examples ........................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... viii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. ix List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... x Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: The “Ring” Cycle: Historical Foundations of Barbershop Singing ............................... 4 Chapter 2: “My Wild Opera Rose”: Classical Voice Types and Barbershop Voice Parts ............. 17 Chapter 3: Senza Vibrato? The Relationship Between the Phenomenon of The “Ring” and Vibrato .......................................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 4: “Good Close Harmony”: The Barbershop Tuning Method ......................................... 33 Chapter 5: The Fifth Voice: Enhancing Vocal Resonance ............................................................38 Chapter 6: Switch Parts: Determining Voice Type with Barbershop Repertoire ...........................48 Chapter 7: “The Barbershopper of Seville”: A Comparison of Performance Practices ................ 59 Chapter 8: The Curtain Rises: Barbershop and Classical Coaching as Performance Enhancement ……………………………………………………………………………………………………75 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 84 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 89 vi List of Examples Example 1.1 ................................................................................................................................... 64 Example 1.2 ................................................................................................................................... 68 Example 1.3 ................................................................................................................................... 69 Example 1.4 ................................................................................................................................... 73 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1 ....................................................................................................................................... 31 Figure 1.2 ....................................................................................................................................... 45 Figure 1.3 ....................................................................................................................................... 45 viii List of Tables Table 1.1 ........................................................................................................................................ 17 ix List of Abbreviations AHSOW- Ancient Harmonious Society of Woodshedders ........................................................... 11 BHS- Barbershop Harmony Society. ............................................................................................. ..5 HU- Harmony University............................................................................................................... 44 IU- Indiana University ................................................................................................................... 26 JRC- Jordan River Crossing (a barbershop quartet) ....................................................................... 10 NAACP- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ...................................... 11 NATS- National Association of Teachers of Singing .................................................................... 77 SAI- Sweet Adelines International ................................................................................................. 14 SOI- Sounds of Indiana (a barbershop chorus) .............................................................................. 27 SPEBSQSA- Society for the Preservation (Promulgation) and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America ................................................................................................... ..5 x INTRODUCTION It has been extremely enlightening to learn that the exacting standards and techniques of classical singing apply in many ways to the quite different discipline of barbershop singing. For many years, I have been captivated with classical composers such as J.S. Bach, Händel, Vaughan- Williams, Ravel, Debussy, Barber, and so many others. While learning classical vocal technique and repertoire I have also become intimate with the technical requirements of a very disparate art form known as barbershop. The former originated and evolved in the courts and concert halls of Europe, originally for the wealthy and privileged. Barbershop was first found in a vastly different environment (various parts of the United States, predominantly in the American South)—and is known as a more popular form of entertainment. Yet, the disciplines of vocal training and performance for the two quite different approaches to music have many similarities—especially concerning the philosophy of singing. It is the purpose of this document to show some of the different approaches to sound production between the two as well as show similar exacting standards and goals that are common to the two. For the classical singer new to the art form of barbershop harmony, there are certain hallmark features that distinguish barbershop from other styles of music. Characteristics include syllabic homophonic chords, homorhythmic textures, mostly free tempi (this mainly applies to ballads), major-minor seventh chords, almost entirely American English texts, and standard song forms (ABA and AABA).1 Barbershop harmony shares many of these features with the traditions of classical singing. In his American Music article “From ‘the Chord was King’ to ‘a Dynamic Journey’: Changes in the Barbershop Quartet Style in Contests Since the 1950s,” Robert G. Hopkins described characteristics of barbershop harmony as: 1. Four part a capella harmony, 2. A harmonizing part above the melody, 1 Boeghold, Evan. (2017, July) “Parallels between Classical and Barbershop.” Class taught at the annual meeting of Harmony University and the BHS at Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee. 1 3. A performance