In my last quiz I noted that Harlan and Todd Wilson represent the only father-son combo ever to sing in international-level first place quartets. The wording of that question would have been clearly improved had I made specific reference to two different quartets, as to this day the Wilsons remain the only father-son combo ever to have sung in two different championship quartets. Let's not split hairs, however, and give proper recognition to our 2003 champs, Power Play. Although this is obviously one quartet, it consists of a father, Jack Slamka, his sons, Michael and Mark, and his nephew, Don. Several regular readers of my history quiz advised me that the Slamkas should have been cited along with the Wilsons. I thank them as accuracy is the name of the game in the history quiz business. On another topic--a sincere thank you goes to society membership director, Charlie Davenport, for lending me his personal copy of Deac Martin's long out of print Book of Musical Americana, the source of this month's Q's and A's. Martin was a renowned musicologist who was born in 1890 in Iowa and grew up in Missouri during barbershop's glory days, especially so in the rural Midwest at the turn of the last century. He joined the society in 1938, founded the Cleveland, OH, Chapter in 1940, wrote a column "The Way I See It" in the "Harmonizer" for many years and authored Keep America Singing in 1948, a history of the society's first ten years.
QUESTIONS:
1- In the Book of Musical Americana, Martin notes that barbershop harmony and another type of American music enjoyed a remarkable rebirth starting in the 1930's. Identify this other home-grown musical genre.
2- Martin states that barbershop and that other type of music mentioned in question #1 above share many common characteristics. Name as many as you can.
3- Notwithstanding all they share socially, are there any musical similarities between the two?
4- There is an abundance of references made in books, articles and oral histories as to the powerful relationship between rural barber shops and barbershop harmony during barbershop's golden age (1890 - 1920). From this can we surmise that seldom (or never) was the ring of locked in barbershop 7th chords heard in urban barber shops?
5- In addition to providing the premier venues for singing barbershop harmony, in what other ways did late 19th/early 20th century barbers contribute toward the development and improvement of barbershop harmony?
ANSWERS:
1- Folk music.
2- Both have European ancestry; both are music of, by and for the common people; both rose phoenix-like from the musical ashes; both enjoyed a tremendous surge in popularity during their revivals in the 1930's unmatched in earlier times; and both became musically respectable, entering the concert hall for the first time.
3- Not according to Deac. That's probably an over-reach, however, as many of the same songs are in the repertoires of both styles. Clearly, however, the manner in which they respectively treated the music, particularly with reference to arrangement, was not at all alike. Certainly the significance of musical instruments in folk music and the absolute prohibition of same in barbershop on one hand, and barbershop's lusting after ringing dominant 7th chords and folk music's nonchalance regarding them on the other hand, represent two huge stylistic differences between the two types of music.
4- Although I cannot definitively say yea or nay on this point, I can say that there's no logical reason to assume it, and, more importantly, it was not indicated to be the case either in Deac Martin's book or in any other barbershop history source I've ever read.
5 - Being at the epicenter of the barbershop harmony universe as they were, barbers with musical talent naturally gravitated toward becoming skilled quartet coaches; the first such coaches I have ever seen referenced in any source. They also served in an important promotional capacity, as they would invite people to stop by their shops at a particular day and time to hear the latest outstanding new quartet.
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