'Contestable' Music for Barbershop Competitions

Recently, in a Facebook forum, a post from a few years back was revived where a quartet member made some really insightful observations and asked questions about contest music and why what is considered "contestable" differs between SA (Sweet Adelines International) and BHS (Barbershop Harmony Society).

Corinna Garriock, an arranger and Music Judge in SA, and all-round nice person, responded with what could be the clearest explanation yet. I wanted to capture it in a blog post for my chorus and anyone else interested, to read. It's a long but very worthwhile read.

"Welcome to the wonderful world of SA and quartetting. I doubt there’s anything more difficult in a quartet or chorus than choosing competition music that suits your personality, is within your skillset, and represents the barbershop style well. I have a few thoughts wrt your questions. Beware VERY long response below! I have to split it into multiple parts. Lol.

Question 1: Why aren't SA contest rules similar to BHS?

Generally, if you read our two Music categories, they aren’t all that dissimilar. BHS allows for more speaking and non-singing sounds in a two song performance, and I think it’s fair to say that they aren’t as focused on Popular Song Form as we are, but in most other aspects of how we define barbershop, it is quite similar. From watching a BHS contest, you might think that they simply interpret the style more broadly than SA, but if you look at scores on either side of the house, I think you’ll find that Music scores do vary with the quality of the barbershop vehicle in both organizations, depending on how it is performed. Maybe 3 to 5 points? It’s not a huge swing and mostly only matters if you’re trying to win or qualify for the next contest.

What the SA Music Category says is this: ‘Music, like art, never remains stagnant.’ It goes on to say ‘A style generally evolves to a point that no longer resembles the original, and a new style emerges.’ Next it suggests ‘While barbershop harmony has seen its own evolution, it is not intended that it will ever evolve into another musical style, be it a cappella or even four-part harmony. The characteristics that make the barbershop style of four-part harmony unique need to remain constant to set it apart from other forms of unaccompanied vocal music.’

I think this paragraph was carefully written to avoid saying that we cannot change the art form. I mean, our mission as an organization (SA) is not to ‘preserve’ barbershop. Our mission clearly states we are ‘committed to advancing the musical art form of barbershop harmony’. Advancing! I interpret the Music Category statements above as ‘There is room for barbershop to evolve, but our overall goal is that it remain a distinct art form and that the hallmarks be retained as we seek creative growth of the style.’

So, what are the hallmarks? According to SA’s Music Category they are:

Song form – The song is constructed in 8-measure chunks. Melodic unity (ex. abac) and melodic variety are also key aspects of song form.

Arrangement form – The chorus is always present. Intro, verse, bridge, tag allow creativity in the packaging.

Lyrics – These should be appropriate to a general audience (i.e. G-rated). Religious and patriotic songs are not for competition.

Harmonization – Often this is what we think of first, but it is just one aspect of how we define barbershop. We like a predominance of Major Triads, Dominant Sevenths, Dominant Ninths because they set up a strong overtone pattern that rings. Resolutions should follow the Circle of Fifths, which is code for ‘We love V-I perfect cadences!’ The remaining chords do not set up the strong overtone patterns we love but are used to accommodate the melody, or for artistic reasons such as mood/colour/flavour. The melody is generally in the middle of the chord, the lowest voice sings a strong chord component, and all chords are complete with no tone omitted.

Harmonic Progressions – We look for harmonizations that closely follow the implied harmony of the melody. Original harmonizations (think Pentatonix’ version of ‘Happy’) are not rewarded if they obscure the melody such that the harmony becomes the message of the song and the melody is lost. Not that ‘Happy’ is a barbershop song… 🙂

Voicings – We expect voicings that reinforce the overtone pattern. If they are consistently weak (i.e. the bass is always on the third, the melody on top, or other kinds of non-hallmark voicings), the arrangement is weakened. If weak voicings don’t resolve to strong ones, the arrangement is weakened. If a variety of closed and open voicings are not utilized, the arrangement is weakened.

Creative Devices – We have lots of goodies in the barbershop style! Swipes, Echoes, Solos, Patter, Bell Chords, Instrumental Effects, Modulations / Key Changes and probably a few more things. This is the fun stuff, however, all icing (embellishments) and no cake (syllabic/homo-rhythmic/homophonic harmonization – whatever you want to call it) makes for a sweet sing but might leave the listener with a stomach ache. Ha. I’ve carried that analogy as far as I can, I think, but the Music category defines creative devices as ‘musical devices used by the arranger to add musical interest or to achieve the continuity that would be provided by instrumental accompaniment.’ If the musical devices overwhelm the melody and the message, the song is weakened. That is a matter of judgement and an area where BHS and SA seem to interpret the category a bit differently.

After all that, the above is just 30% of the Music Judge’s score. The performance of the arrangement is the other 70%. The problem is, we don’t parse how the *song and arrangement* affected your score vs. how *you* affected your score. It’s simply a weighting - a guideline - to tell the music judge how much consideration to give an arrangement that may or may not cover all of the ‘hallmarks’ noted above. Once you layer the performer onto the song and arrangement, you are in the 70%. For example, an over-embellished piece in the hands of performers struggling for breath or trying to hold a tempo together is going to have a much more significant impact on the 70% than the same piece performed by a championship level group.

We learn to walk, then we learn to run. Same thing in choosing music. We need a lot of insight into our own skillset to know what is going to sing well (we call that Suitability on the scoresheet), and we also need to have at least a basic understanding of the style. It’s a journey for sure.

Question 2: The lyrical content and intent of many of these songs are no longer relevant.

I totally agree! I have learned to always look at the lyric first when choosing music in quartet because I need to want to sing about it.

Question 3: At contest I thought - why are they all singing the same songs?

I am happy to say I don’t really hear a ton of repeats at competitions any more, but we definitely have popular songs that get rolled out each year. I wish our advanced singers would ‘beg forgiveness’ more often than ‘ask permission’. On the other hand, those working at C or low B levels are learning the craft, developing vocal skills, etc. and need stronger vehicles to be successful. That is one reason you hear repeats. Go to a BHS District or Division contest – you’ll hear repeats there too from year to year for the same reason.

How Deep Is the Ocean? You Are My Sunshine? If Ever I Would Leave You? If you have the chops for these songs, then sing them. Don’t let a couple of points and a line about ‘a predominance of secondary chords’ or ‘strophic in form’ stop you, please! My quartet Martini sang If Ever in the Intl Quartet Finals in 2011. It appears that our Music Judges took a few points for weaknesses in the song and arrangement (secondary harmonies, harmonic progression comments) but they had lots of great things to say as well. Sound, Expression and Show loved the message and the performance and we were rewarded there. I know we benefited overall by choosing a song that we could relate to strongly. It’s a balancing act.

Here’s another difference in SA. The written word is powerful. We give you a written scoresheet. You can use that sheet to review your performance and set goals for the coming season, identify coaching needs, etc. That’s the great part! The downside is that the written word is permanent. A single line of criticism can seem like a bigger message than it actually is. Try to keep the written word in perspective. Write to your judge if you have a concern and she will reply to you with clarification.

Question 4: What is Sweet Adelines doing to bolster better contest content?

Getting material arranged is a good solution and depends on the initiative of the group and finding the right experienced help such as directors, arrangers, judges, coaches and veteran quartetters. Learning to arrange is useful too. I am hoping with the new Arranger Certification Program rolling out next May that we will get a lot more beginner involvement in creating arrangements. Copyright challenges with publishers who no longer want their music arranged at a reasonable cost have created issues with availability of music. We are stuck in the same place as every other choral organization in the world, but new avenues for publishing arrangements, such as SMP, are beginning to emerge. The song writing contest SA recently ran was an attempt to stimulate an interest in original music, and it received a lot of entries. Hopefully we’ll see more development in this area as well with people like Donya Metzger leading the way.

We do need to talk about these things and decide the way forward. I’d love to see a flood of new arrangements on the contest stage, and I’d like to be ‘tested’ more as a Music Judge. I really have no interest in restricting artistic expression.

Doing figure 8’s for the rest of our barbershop lives won’t make for a very interesting journey. It’s the breakout moments that we all remember. Go forth and find new music to sing. Get it arranged. I made a list of songs that I heard in Orlando at BHS that would translate well to SA but we need more arrangements for our organization’s voices that are fresh, fun, relevant and from any era. Use the hallmarks as a guideline and let’s find those songs!"