ORANGE SQUEEZIN'S 
December, 2003
MEETING EVERY MONDAY 7:15 P.M.- COME SING WITH US UNTIL 10 P.M.
AT THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 1130 E. WALNUT ST., ORANGE, CALIF. by Dave Gryvnak Well, it is time to venture off into the new year. 2004 brings new challenges and new experiences. As far as the Orange Chapter is concerned, it should be a great time to have a great time. Just as the previous Officers of this chapter were, the new board is focused on doing whatever is necessary to allow each member to enjoy singing with three other guys. If you want to develop into a quartet, so be it; if you just want to sing with three other guys, so be that too, and Monday night at the Orange Chapter is the place to do it. If you know of any good singers, bring them around. As we all know, singing is fun, but when you sing with someone that can hold his own, then it is great. If you really want to increase your fun, come early. There are a bunch of guys that get to the chapter at 6 PM looking to sing with three others in a quartet. Better still, if you have a special piece of music you'd like to try, bring four copies, or even better yet, hand out the copies to three guys and ask them to take it home and learn it. We plan to have a great year. Those of you that haven't been coming around, you're missing a terrific time with some terrific fellows. Come on down and sing. Remember, if you're too busy to sing, you're too busy. By the way, remember to come to the Chapman General hospital on Chapman Avenue for the Annual Christmas Sing on December 15. Be there at 6PM.
Dave Gryvnak
Mike Werner Appointment
Mike Werner, ardent woodshedder, has been appointed by Casey Parker, the Far Western District Educator and Certifier for AHSOW, to assist in educating and certifying applicants into the Ancient Harmonious Society of Woodshedders. Mike's duties as Assistant District Educator and Certifier will be to educate and to promote the art of woodshedding as well as to assist in qualifying perspective new members.
AHSOW's mission is to preserve, promote and perpetuate the pleasure of creating harmonies by ear, in a quartet, to a compatible barbershop melody, without the reference to written or familiar arrangements.
See http://www.ahsow.org for more information about AHSOW, and authentic woodshedding.
For further information, contact
Installation of Officers and Awards
Approximately 60 Chapter members, quarteters, family, and friends met Nov. 22 for dinner at Rembrandt's Beautiful Food. The food was beautiful (I saw some doggie bags going home for later enjoyment), the fellowship was wonderful, and the singing almost constant, especially after the event when one foursome could barely wait for the next foursome to finish. There seemed to be as much spontaneous singing as scheduled singing. For details of the evening, read on.
Michael Werner is B.O.T.Y
Members of the Orange Quartet Chapter gathered on November 22 for an evening of fine food and song at Rembrandt's Beautiful Food Restaurant in Placentia. The Chapter owes our thanks to Paul Kelley for negotiating a deal on this excellent venue. I understand that Paul even put his own money down! A guy like that deserves a special award, which may be why Paul received our first Paul Jockinsen Service Award. We were tempted to give Paul the Curmudgeon Award, too, but we couldn't spell that.
MC Rich Lewis began the evening with a parade of six chapter quartets. (See next story.) Then dinner was served, with red and white wine included.
Outgoing President Rick Little presented six Outstanding Service Awards, as follows:
Dorothy Acton, our Newsletter Editor, received the Innovator of the Year Award for putting The Squeezin's on the Internet.
Rich Lewis, who has run our Valentine Serenade Program so ably, received The Old Sweetheart Award. This vital program keeps the chapter afloat financially.
The husband and wife team of Phil and Phyllis Roth, who frequently open their home to chapter activities, won the Hospitality Award.
Paul Lewis, who took over the post of Secretary upon the death of Paul Jockinsen, earned the Unsung Hero Award.
Paul Kelley, who managed the superhuman task of being as indispensable as the late Paul Jockinsen, received the Paul Jockinsen Service Award.
Michael Werner, our own "Mister Hospitality", won the Barbershopper of the Year Award, for exemplifying the spirit of Barbershop
Al Bell, my compatriot from the Fullerton Orange Empire Chorus Chapter, and a fine quarteter himself, served as our Installation Officer. Al administered the oath to: President Dave Gryvnak, VP Membership Michael Werner, VP Music Rich Lewis, VP Program Don Engel, Secretary Paul Lewis, Treasurer Phil Roth, Past President Rick Little, Board Member at Large Dick Nuttelman, and Newsletter Editor Dorothy Acton. President Gryvnak will be contacting each of us this month, asking us to help in one way or another. I predict we will move into 2004 at flank speed (that's Warp Four for you Trekkies out there).
Our Guest Quartet for the evening, California Blend, has appeared on local television. Their lead singer, Richard Uriarte, started with the Orange Chapter. Their bass, Lee Anderson, is a chapter member and is also the bass with Indigo Quartet. Their tenor, Dave Gunther, is a member of the Whittier Choralaires. They treated us to a variety of songs ranging from "This Litle Light of Mine" to "Moonglow," with a doo-wop medley thrown in for variety. They were the right quartet to cap off a delightful evening.
It's a sign of the strength of our chapter that our quartets often share one or more members. This allows us to fill in for each other in emergencies. I enjoyed learning the tenor part of "There Goes My Heart" this week so I could fill in with Retro. Time sure flies when you're having fun.
Thanks to Stanley Tinkle for the following transcript of the presentation of the President's Awards at our installation dinner.
Orange Chapter
1. (Innovator of The Year). The recipient of this evening's first award came to Barbershop by a round-about route, having learned the harmony parts to the song "Hello Mary Lou" by osmosis. Members of the Orange Quartet Chapter read every word she writes in our newsletter, The Squeezin's, which she has faithfully published during the recent illness of her husband, Dick Acton. Dorothy Acton recently began publishing The Squeezin's on the internet, where it reaches a wider reading public and incidentally saves us a lot on mailing costs. Dorothy publishes another special-interest newsletter, so she has an endless source of humorous material to share, and--luckily for us--she loves to type! Please join me in applauding Dorothy Acton, Newsletter Editor and Innovator of the Year!
2. (Old Sweetheart Award). Whenever we begin to wonder whether anyone in the world outside cares about barbershop, we remember the pleasure of delivering singing valentines. That's a moment in which we become the conduit for emotions that are too intense for words alone. It's also the way we have chosen to finance the day-to-day expenses of the Orange Quartet Chapter. Without the Singing Valentines, we'd have to assess ourselves $100 per annum, or sell oranges at freeway offramps. The man who sets up the delivery of our Singing Valentines must have the cool nerves of an air-traffic controller and the sales skill of Professor Harold Hill of music man fame. Our Chapter has one of the best. This year was highly successful under his leadership, which he willingly contributed despite a heavy load of personal and business responsibilities. Our "Old Sweetheart Award" goes to one of our most enthusiastic quarteters, Rich Lewis!
3. (Hospitality Award). Our next award goes to two people. One of them always shares the joy of singing by paying for a serenade to a roomful of friends--and then he has his own quartet help him deliver it. His co-recipient helps him host our annual Farewell to Summer Celebration. We're lucky that both of them really enjoy having the party at their house. Together they represent the best spirit of barbershoppers. When this couple throws a party, they include our entire chapter, our spouses and our friends! Our Hospitality Award goes to Phil and Phyllis Roth.
4. (Unsung Hero Award). Our next recipient is a man who steps forward and volunteers when there is an essential task that needs doing. He has helped us with our annual audit--a thankless task. Without being asked, he published our excellent collection of tags. This year he took over the job of Chapter Secretary when Paul Jockinsen passed on. He takes on these tasks because he wants to see our chapter prosper. We're lucky we have Paul Lewis on board. He truly deserves the "Unsung Hero Award."
5. (The Paul Jockinsen Service Award). As outgoing President, I'm claiming the Prerogative of establishing a new award, which future Presidents can give when the occasion warrants it. It may take several years for a member to qualify for this award, so it probably won't be an annual event. I call it the Paul Jockinsen Service Award, and it's designed to recognize a member who contributes to our chapter on a weekly basis over the years, just as Paul did. The recipient of the first Paul Jockinsen Service Award opened and closed our meeting place for years. He has held most of our chapter offices, and he held the most thankless post of all--Newsletter Editor--at one time. You know him as the clearest lead in town. He's Paul Kelley! BOTY. Every year among the many members who contribute to the success of our chapter, we recognize one who exemplifies the spirit of Barbershop. He's often a member who has served as President, Program VP or Board Master. In a Quartet Chapter, he may be a four-part singer or a man who is ready to sing with anyone at the drop of a pitchpipe. In our case this year it is a man who is all of the above. He shakes your hand every Monday evening. Then he sings with you. His name is Michael Werner, and he's our Barbershopper of the Year!
7. Our Parade Of Quartets. A quartet chapter should have some active quartets at all times, and the Orange Quartet Chapter certainly does. We're proud of all of them. The Orangetown Four, our oldest continuously active foursome, is taking gigs every month. Four For Harmony is singing for parties and at YMCA events and high school activities. They continue to learn new songs. Indigo has been together for at least five years. They are the only quartet around whose members take turns singing lead, tenor, bari and bass. Balderdash is composed of four former members of the Masters of Harmony. Their lead singer, Dave Gryvnak, is our incoming Chapter President, and their bass, Michael Werner, is our new Membership Chairman. Retro is a relatively new quartet that likes to perform unusual songs like "Coloring Book" and "I Can Dream, Can't I?" Their bass is the lead of Indigo, and their lead is the tenor of Indigo. How's that for versatility! Fermata The Blue, the quartet that sang "Jezebel" tonight, is really revved up with their new bass, Van Herron.
Our guest quartet of this evening, California Blend, has the distinction of having appeared on television. They have also been doing quite a few gigs off-camera lately.
When you add in the quartets that were formed for a specific contest such as Sunkist you will see that we have a lot of barbershop ferment going on here. I'm proud of all of you, and it would be counter-productive to choose one to honor above the others. But we may do that next year, so keep up the good work.
Singing With Chapter Quartets
Our Masters of the Board, Rich Lewis, Don Engle et al, are making very good use of our wealth of quartets. On Monday nights, when a chapter quartet is all present or perhaps missing one part, the board master keeps three members together and assigns one of "the rest of us" to take the other part.
There have been numerous informal discussions over the past few months on the best use of our quartets to improve chapter singing overall. For example, one idea among many was to allow a member to request a chance to sing with a specific quartet at a meeting, but to require that the member first learn a song in the quartet's repertoire and not in the chapter's current songs. However, formal procedures as usual give way to the exigiences of "filling the board." We are still experimenting, and probably will be for a long time. But as Dave Gryvnak said so well, the singing is already great, thanks to our wonderfully cooperative quartets. If you want a great "high," ring a good tag with one of them.
4/4 Harmony Sing Outs in December
Dec. 6--St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton Christmas Party
Pioneers
Hello Barbershop Pioneers:
The Mid-West Pioneers gathering is over and it is time to start planning for the Western Pioneers Convention on January 22nd, 23rd and 24th. Once again it is being held at the beautiful Grand Tradition in Fallbrook (North San Diego County) exactly 60 miles from both San Diego and Ontario Airports. Each year this proves to be a great weekend of woodshedding, fun and frivolity for those that are fortunate enough to attend.
You may register by going to the pioneers web-site www.barbershoppioneers.com and printing the Spring/Summer Newsletter. There is a registration form there for you to use. If you need more information feel free to e-mail me at
don@grandtradition.com.
We also have a e-mail list of fellow barbershoppers and you can access it by selecting the e-mail list button and typing the user name "pioneers" and the password "harmony". This way you can stay in contact with your friends and fellow woodshedders.
We will be updating our next newsletter and are looking for pictures,
information, articles and general information that would be useful to
other barbershop enthusiasts.
We hope to see all of you in January for the Western Pioneers.
Mail & Email
We've received many notes from friends of our recently deceased member Richard Acton and donations to the Chapter in his name. Here's an example, where a few words say it all:
"Keep Dick's memory alive with your Music!"
Christmas Carol History
The Christmas carol "Deck the Halls" is from Wales, where there's a harpist on every street corner. The song was originally sung with chorus portions interspersed with a harpist improvising a few bars, hence "strike the harp and join the chorus." Now, where the harpist would play, we sing, "fa la la la la, la la la la. (Source: PBS radio broadcast--provided for use by PROBE--Public Relations Officers and Bulletin Editors of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of BarberShop Quartet Singing in America.)
The Christmas carol "What Child Is This?" takes the melody of "Greensleeves." The melody of "Greensleeves" was written by no less a personage than Henry VIII, who was quite a musician when not disposing of wives, founding the Episcopal church, and so on. The name of the song refers to ladies of easy virtue who stained their sleeves green while rolling in the grass! (Sources: PBS radio broadcast and Kira Prewitt, SAI and worker at a medieval festival--provided for use by PROBE.
The words to "O Holy Night" were written by Placide Clappeau, in 1847. It was translated from French to English by John Sullivan Dwight (1812-1893). Clappeau, a wine merchant and mayor of Roquemaure, France. He wrote poems for his own enjoyment. The music was written by Adolphe-Charles Adam (1803-1856). Adam was born in Paris, France. He is best known for his ballet Giselle (1841) and his operatic work. (Source http://www.cvc.org/).
The Christmas carol "The First Noel," has English descent. Its original spelling was nowell. Scholars believe the word to actually stand for the phrase, "Now all is well." Some people think that the unknown author meant that God was saying now all is well since Christ was born. It was written sometime in the 17th century and has been popular for about three centuries. First it was passed down orally and was finally written down in a book of Christmas carols in 1833. (Source http://www.cvc.org/).
"Silent Night." On Christmas Eve in 1818, in a small village church (St. Nicholas' Church) of Oberndorf in the Austrian Alps, 26-year old assistant pastor, Joseph Mohr, wanted to have a special service to honor his Lord. Thus, he got together with the church organist and teacher, Franz Gruber, to create a special new song for guitar and voices, Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Mohr and Gruber were never to know how popular their little song would become. They wouldn't even be discovered to be the composers until 1854. The true authorship of this hymn was confirmed in 1997 by a recent discovery of an 1820 Mohr manuscript, showing Gruber as the tune's composer to a poem that Mohr had written in 1816...before he was ever pastor of St. Nicholas' Church. (Source http://www.cvc.org/).
And for a bit of foolishness:
Target publication date for the next Squeezins' bulletin is Jan. 5, Jan. 12, or whenever we get enough articles. Send your articles to Editor at acton17@adelphia.net or bring to the Monday meeting.
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