By Rich Spencer
Salt Lake City, Utah was the site. 2005 was the year. My wife, Pat, and I were impressed from start to finish and had the time of our lives at the 2005 Barbershop International Convention.
"Wow! Awesome! Unbelievable! Holy Cow! Sweet! " were some of the exclamations that were heard in the LDS Conference Center. Of course, at the Orange Quartet Chapter meetings on Mondays words such as "Awesome" are also a part of every meeting, but at the 2005 Barbershop Harmony Society International Convention competitions the word took on new meaning.
The convention competitions and most of the barbershop performances were held at the LDS Conference Center just north of Temple Square. This facility provides exceptional acoustics for barbershop singing, even (some say especially) in the balcony. LDS volunteers were available all week at the Conference Center to help people find their seats, to answer questions about the church and the city and to help find the best/quickest restaurants between shows. The food court set up across the street was the perfect solution for those of us who refused to miss even one minute of the competitions and performances.
The exciting collegiate quartet contest kicked off the competitions. Men in Black (1st ), New Release (2nd), Musical Island Boys (3rd), Afternoon Delight (4th), and Fortissimo (5th) were judged to be the best of the collegiate ranks for this year. Men So Forte finished 7th with an exciting performance. All the collegiate quartets provided great performances and are now part of the barbershop folklore. Let’s hope that all these collegiate quartet competitors are around for years to come.
The Wildcard Chorus competitions were new this year and were an exciting crowd pleaser since they featured some great comedy (notably The Hot Air Buffoons) as well as great musical performances. The six wildcard chorus winners finished strongly in the field of 24 choruses that competed in the finals. Their placements were exceptional as follows: Spirit of Phoenix (8th), Southern Gateway (9th), Midwest Vocal Express (10th), Big Apple Chorus (11th), Saltaires (13th) , Texas Millionaires (17th). My assessment is that the Wildcard Chorus Competitions are here to stay. I liked the format and thoroughly enjoyed the excitement and enthusiasm that all the wildcards brought to the competition. Embracing the wildcard chorus concept will broaden the competition experience base for future years and should help the smaller choruses (who now can brag that they have been to International) to gain new members. The audience was excited about this competition and the choruses all received rousing applause.
The Quartet competitions featured O C Times, our local favorites here in Orange. Seventh overall at the quarter finals, sixth at the semifinals and fifth in the finals they were great ambassadors for the FWD. All three of their performances were superb with such great songs as: Come Fly With Me, Honey Won’t You Open That Door/Hey Good Looking (Medley), Love Me, Good Luck Charm, Put Your Head On My Shoulder, Save The Last Dance For Me/Sway (Medley). I actually had O C Times third in my meager attempt to judge the competitions since their performances were near perfect and since they received a standing ovation after each song during the finals. They will only get better next year. Metropolis finished in third place with an exceptional performance.
As expected, the Masters of Harmony took their 6th straight gold medal in the chorus competition. As always they were superb with marvelous renditions of Time After Time and Roll On Mississippi Roll On in the finals. What a treat to see them compete at International after seeing them perform locally in Orange County for the last few years.
We attended "An Hour with Gotcha" at the Grand America hotel. This was an informative question and answer period and featured a number of great songs as well. The crowd was excited to see these gold medal winners and to talk to Jimmy Kline their ‘new’ base. As the reigning gold medal quartet, Gotcha performed multiple times every day and, as you would expect, were amazing every time.
The AIC show, Wonderful World of Harmony, featured the best of the best: Boston Common, Most Happy Fellows, Acoustix, Nightlife, Dapper Dans of Disney World, FRED, 4 Voices, Power Play, Gotcha and the AIC Chorus. "Wow!" covers it all for this one. Doesn’t get any better than this.
The World Harmony Jamboree featured choruses and quartets from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. These included Ambassadors of Harmony, Gotcha, Musical Island Boys and Entertainmen who are the current Nordic champions. The Entertainmen performed their version of Swede Georgia Brown which wowed the audience and left us laughing for the rest of the day.
Sunday’s activities started at 8:30 am in the LDS Conference Center with the rehearsal prior to the live transmission of the Sunday morning "Music and the Spoken Word" that has been broadcast since 1929. The broadcast featured the Mormon Tabernacle Choir along with the Gold Chorus. After the broadcast, the Gold Chorus joined the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to form a 900 man chorus that sang for the mostly barbershop convention audience. Of course, the audience also sang along so that we could brag about having sung with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I can still hear it ringing.
The Sunday morning performance concluded the 2005 Barbershop Harmony Society Convention for us. Pat and I then headed home in our camper-van completing a 17 day, 3002.2 mile summer vacation road trip that started with a trip from Orange, CA to Santa Rosa, CA for our close friends' 50th wedding anniversary. From there it was on to Sacramento, then to Yosemite National Park to see the sunset on Half Dome from Glacier Point, then motelling it over night in Oakhurst, then camping in Kings Canyon with our friends from Santa Rosa, then on to Sequoia National Park camping with our friends from McDonnell Douglas/Boeing days. From there it was on to Bridgeport (via Yosemite and Tuolumne Meadows) to watch the July 4th fireworks from our motel parking lot, then on to Salt Lake City on a day that found us detouring around the wildfire on Interstate 80 and took us 16 hours of driving to get to the Grand America hotel on the night of Tuesday, July 5 just in time to get four hours of sleep prior to the opening ceremonies and the Collegiate Quartet competitions on the following day Wednesday, July 6. Whew!
This was a trip that Pat and I will never forget. Who knows, we may do another one next year. How far is it to Indianapolis?
Thanks to the Barbershop Harmony Society (a.k.a. and d.b.a SPEBSQSA) and to all the barbershop singers who make this music possible.
Keep America Singing!
Rich Spencer
Super Duper Glows
And How To Build Them
By Stanley Tinkle
Okay, let’s have an easy little quiz. What do you call that restful gathering that follows a barbershop chapter’s weekly meeting, or its annual show, or a competition? Is it a) an inspiring afterglow, b) a pizza pig-out, with moldy jokes for entertainment, c) an assault on the ears, or d) Who knows? I go home at 9 pm, and I just might leave at half past eight.
The correct answer? You can take your pick. I’ve been to every imaginable combination of the above, and some are more fun than others. I’ll vote for the glow that has plenty of singing, a fairly fast pace, and a lot of attentive listening. That implies a pleasant venue, some dedicated organizers, and a happy host. You could say it’s like a well-organized party.
The Orange Quartet Chapter has a pretty good recipe for memorable afterglows. When conditions are right, an unforgettable glow results. But it was not always so. We have met in a series of dark and lonely pizza joints. Now we convene in a bright and cheerful 24 hour Dennys restaurant, which has a glassed-in party facility. The other customers can’t hear us, so no one complains. We place our orders in advance by writing them on our own order form. Our official Number One Fan, Annie Dimola (who wears a badge to that effect), transports those orders to Dennys while we’re in the second phase of our Monday meetings, so that the food will be ready soon after we arrive.
An afterglow should be so rewarding that it is seen as an indispensable singing activity. It should start early, while everyone is still full of energy. The Orange Chapter ends its meetings around 9:30 and begins its glows around 9:45, when John Majzler places our famous Barber Pole on the table in front of his quartet and they launch into song. No one else sings after John has blown his pitch pipe; all of us listen except those who are quietly trying to agree on the song they will sing when the Barber Pole moves down to their location. This way we don’t strain our voices by competing to be heard. A glow should not be like talk radio.
Every glow should allow everyone present to sing with someone he has been hoping to sing with. Several new members at Orange are buying charts and tapes for songs they want to learn. They know that at any glow they can approach any house quartet and plug themselves in for that song. Rich Spencer, Gary Phillips, and our guests Don and Steve all took advantage of that offer last night. A quartet in which three of the singers rehearse together will almost always sound good, and they did. As I recall, the songs included “Love Me Tender”, “Let’s Get Away From It All”, and “Don’t Blame Me”. Actually, for me this was the most memorable moment of last night’s glow; the rapid progress of these singers made me proud of the chapter.
Every singer should be generous with his time. If a threesome needs me to sing bari on a song, who am I to refuse? Ahem. We also have a feminine audience, which often includes Phyllis Roth, Patrique Gryvnak and Annie Dimola. When they applaud we know we sang it well, and they keep us trying. Otherwise, we might resemble a loud poker game.
The established house quartets should plan to attend the glows, even if one of their number is absent. Other members will gladly fill in on their songs. When a quartet showcases a new song, we’re the first to hear it. That’s a perk that comes with our membership. For example, Balderdash introduced “God Bless The U.S.A.”, available from the Society through our Chapter’s “Premier” membership. Anybody ready to tag in? Three other songs which interest me in the latest Premier offering are “Thanks for the Memory”, “Everything Old Is New Again”, and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, so I expect the pot will be simmering this fall!
We should keep our restaurateur happy, by ordering refreshment or food. I don’t eat much after 5 pm, so I just take an order of “Moons Over My Hammy” home for breakfast instead. That way my wife’s happy about the glow, too.
The Eyes Have It!
By Charles LaRue to the Masters of Harmony Aug. 25, 2005
Last Wednesday night, the baritones were treated to a series of intense singing demonstrations by our very own Patrick Claypool and urged to match him in vocal placement, vowel formation, and energy level.
I've been thinking about this all week and comparing Patrick's singing approach with the general baritone approach. As far as vowel shapes and placement, I think we earned gold stars, but as far as energy level, we didn't come up to par.
One obvious reason for this is that Patrick is young, in addition to being a high energy level kind of guy. Watch the way he comports himself - he moves quickly, is very well coordinated, exactly the right build, and he has a very short response time to anything said to him or to what he perceives. He also has a remarkable memory, and a willingness to help others - which is why he suddenly became the front row captain.
So where does this leave the rest of us? In the dust?
I don't think so. It just means we have to put out more energy than we are used to doing. For Patrick, when he sings, he only has to double his energy level to come up to par. The rest of us are going to have to more than double our generated energy.
But like all things, this is best approached on a gradient. Try this at home:
Start at your "rest" position and sing your part in a chorus song. Do all the vowels and placements correctly, but don't try to increase your energy output just yet.
Now, kick it up a notch, not too much, just one notch. Make your eyes brighter. Put some feeling into the song - but don't blaze forth just yet.
Now kick it up another notch - start shining from your eyes a little more. You will feel the increased excitement in your body and in your face - not tension, just a feeling of being more alive. Feel the fire start coming out of your eyes.
Now kick it still another notch - start blazing forth from your eyes. Get the idea of igniting whoever you look at with your energy.
Now kick it up one final notch and blaze forth with everything you've got!!! Your eyes are now like high powered lazar beams!!!. YES!!! THAT'S IT!!!
I'll bet that everything falls into place, vowels and all. Why? Because you are actually more alive, more present in the moment. The world around you will even look brighter.
Doing this will not drain you of energy - it will feed your body with energy and leave it with a feeling of well being. How wonderful to get more energy back than you put out! It reverses entropy big time, which of course is what life is always doing.
I think that we believe the opposite, that the more energy we put out, the less we will have left. This belief is incorrect and is debilitating. The more we generate energy knowingly in this way, the more alive we will become and the more enjoyable everything will be, especially singing. Try it and see if this is true for you.
One Singer, Two Chapters
Is It For You?
Response to Last Issue's Article By Stanley Tinkle
What a great explanation of the "Qtet only" chapter. I visited your chapter
18 months ago when we were house sitting for our son in Huntington Beach,
and enjoyed the experience more than I can tell you. I have been trying to
get up some interest in forming a qtet chapter here in the Reno area, to
supplement the demands by the "regular" chapter, that rehearses two songs
and is highly competition oriented.
This will give me something to circulate to the membership (if I dare) to
stimulate thinking about an alternative (or supplementary) activity.
I hope to visit again this winter when we will be in the Santa Ana area, and
am looking forward to it.
Howard Stevens, Reno Silver Dollar Chorus AND frustrated quartetter.
Summer Sing at The Roth Home
The photos tell the tale. The Summer Sing at Roth's home was great fun. Find photos at our Internet Photo Album at http://www.harmonize.com/Orange/photos.html.
Next Issue
Target publication date for the next Squeezins' bulletin is Nov. 1 or whenever we get enough articles. Send your articles to Editor at dcacton@earthlink.net.
ORANGE SQUEEZIN'S
