BARBERSHOP HISTORY – GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ

author: Mark Axelrod, editor of "Blue Chip Chatter," Teaneck, NJ.

QUESTIONS:

1- When did barbershop choruses become commonplace?

2- When did the first international chorus contest take place; for extra credit, where was the venue?

3- Which chorus won that first competition?

4- Why was that chorus not really the first champ?

5- Who then was the first genuine chorus champ?


ANSWERS:

1- From the earliest days of the society, many members complained that they had neither the time nor the inclination to sing in a quartet, but they would love to hear and make the barbershop sound in a chorus. The purists, who opined that the only genuine barbershop harmony was, is and always shall be sung by quartets and quartets only fought like steers, but it was ultimately a losing battle. By the mid-1940s chapter choruses were becoming less and less newsworthy. Choruses may have been around even before 1945, but 1945 is the earliest reference I've yet seen.

2- 1953 in Detroit, MI.

3- The Great Lakes Chorus from Grand Rapids, MI.

4- Because the 1953 contest was a trial balloon to test the popularity of a society-wide chorus contest; not every district was represented. My source did not state which were and which were not.

5- The 1953 contest was enthusiastically responded to and in 1954 the first true society-wide contest with all the districts represented took place in Washington, DC. Our premier chorus champ was the hometown favorites, the Singing Capital Chorus. From 1954 on, choruses have joined quartets every year in international competition.


 

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