Barbershop choir to harmonize at Midwest contest

By Times staff | Tuesday, October 07, 2008

The Chordbusters Chorus of the Davenport Barbershop Chapter will perform in competition Saturday during the Central States District Convention and Contests at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The contest is scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Chordbusters chorus, directed by Dean Sellers, is one of 16 with a total of more than 600 singers that will be on stage. The choruses come from barbershop harmony chapters in Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska.

In addition, 25 quartets are competing. The quartet semifinals are 3:30 to 5:30 and 7 to

10 p.m. Friday, and the quartet finals are 7:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday.

Single-event registrations are available at the U.S. Cellular Center a half-hour before each event. The single event cost is: $12 for the quartet semifinals, $16 for the chorus contest and $23 for the quartet finals contest. About 1,200 barbershoppers, family and friends are expected to register for the convention.

Barbershop is an a capella style of music that originated in the United States around the turn of the 20th century in African-American communities where barbershops were often social gathering spots.

Typically, barbershop is sung in a quartet made up of a lead who sings the melody, a tenor who harmonizes above the melody, a bass who sings the low notes and a baritone who completes the chord.

Each quartet is evaluated by a panel of three judges in three categories. The nine judges are certified by the Barbershop Harmony Society. The three judging categories are: music, presentation and singing. After the contest, the judges, who are skilled musicians, share advice with quartet members on how they can improve.

The music judge evaluates the song and arrangement as it is performed. The presentation judge evaluates how effectively a performer brings the song to life, that is the believability of the theme in its musical and visual setting. The singing judge evaluates the degree to which the performer achieves artistic singing in the barbershop style.

The Central States District covers Kansas and South Dakota in addition to Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. It is among 16 districts of the Barbershop Harmony Society, which has its headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., and has as its motto “Keep the whole world singing.” The district has 59 chapters and 2,116 members who are part of the society, which has 800 chapters and about 30,000 members in the United States and Canada.