QUESTIONS:
1- If you simultaneously play every other white key on the piano starting on G and ending on the F above it, what chord will you hear?
2- Four current TV shows (i.e., regularly scheduled and not in reruns) have featured barbershop quartets. Name them.
3- The Heritage Hall Museum located in Kenosha opened when and in recognition of what?
4- Where and when did the famous Norman Rockwell painting of a barbershop quartet first appear? For extra credit, in what venue was the painted quartet singing?
ANSWERS:
1- Our favorite chord, a barbershop seventh. This will not happen if you start on any white key other than G.
2- America s Funniest Home Videos, David Letterman, General Hospital and the Simpsons.
3- In 1988, in recognition of the Society s 50th anniversary.
4- On the front cover of the September 29, 1936 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. The foursome was singing in a barbershop, naturally.
(Editor s note: The Rockwell quartet as it appears on a neck tie or a small reprint is okay, but the original painting is a wow. I saw it at the Norman Rockwell Museum in the famed painter's adopted hometown of Stockbridge, MA, the town in which he landed in 1953 after an extensive search for a quintessentially American town in which to live and work; he remained there until he died in 1978. Rockwell's entire studio, the size of a small house, originally on Main Street, was moved in 1986 to the museum grounds just outside of the town center. I highly recommend that you make a day trip up that way. It's about a three-hour one-way drive from Teaneck, so an over-nighter would be a lot less wear and tear on you; there's plenty to see in the Berkshire Mountains besides Stockbridge. The museum is just terrific and Stockbridge is charming, the epitome of a quaint New England town. While there, don't miss the renowned brunch at the Red Lion Inn. This lovely country inn, which first opened in 1773 as a tiny stage coach stop, was substantially enlarged in 1848 and again in 1884. It burned down in 1896 and was rebuilt, reopening in 1897 just as it looks today. It is prominently featured in Rockwell's wonderful painting Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas. More trivia -- Alice's Restaurant, immortalized in the 60's song by folk music icon, Arlo Guthrie, was a real place and was located a few doors away from Rockwell's studio. The restaurant is now a memory, but the building in which it was located is still there and still occupied, currently by a marketing company as I recall).
back to history index