Earn Four Parts, No Waiting: A Social History Of American Barbershop Quartet Rendered By Gage Averill Exhibited In Booklet

Gage Averill on Four Parts, No Waiting: A Social History of American Barbershop Quartet

need to come back to write a more complete review on this book which I found engrossing, Actually, I'd like to reread it now that I've had a little more experience myself in a barbershop chorus and at the International Barbershop Harmony Convention held in Anaheim,CA this past Fourth of July week.

I'm still trying to get my head around the distinction between barbershop harmony and the various other types of a cappella singing such as doo wop.
But it's the SOCIAL history that made this book so fascinating, Few probably realize the movement was based on black African spontaneous/unstudied harmonizing, The four guys with razors, shaving mugs, and foam or the tipplers at the bar fit only marginally into this picture at all! More later.


Book jacket blurb:
Four Parts, No Waiting investigates the role that vernacular, barbershopstyle close harmony has played in American musical history, in American life, and in the American imagination.
Starting with a discussion of the first craze for Austrian fourpart close harmony in thes, Averill traces the popularity of this musical form in minstrel shows, black recreational singing, vaudeville, early recordings, and in the barbershop revival of thes.
In his exploration of barbershop, Averill uncovers a rich musical traditiona hybrid of black and white cultural forms, practiced by amateurs, and part of a mythologized vision of smalltown American life.
Barbershop harmony played a central and overlooked role in the panorama of American music, Averill demonstrates that the barbershop revival was part of a depressionera neoVictorian revival, spurred on by insecurities of economic and social change, Contemporary barbershop singing turns this nostalgic vision into lived experience, Arguing that the "old songs" function as repositories of idealized social memory, Averill reveals ideologies of gender, race, and class, This engaginglywritten, often funny book critiques the nostalgic myths especially racial myths that have surrounded the barbershop revival, but also celebrates the civicminded, participatory spirit of barbershop harmony.
The text is accompanied by an audio CD, It was exciting to find a book on the history of barbershop quartet singing, and Averill's books certainly covers the history, It also goes deeply into the music theory that makes the genre different from others, While I did enjoy learning about how the music came to be part of Americana, I was a little disappointed that the author covered very little about modern quartet and chorus activities.
Also, although Averill did mention Sweet Adelines, the women's spinoff of SPEBSQSA, he did not include modern innovations that both groups have brought to the genre.
Sadly, this leaves the book lacking the lastyears of barbershop quartet singing, Four Parts, No Waiting investigates the role that vernacular, barbershopstyle close harmony has played in American musical history, in American life, and in the American imagination.
Starting with a discussion of the first craze for Austrian fourpart close harmony in thes, Averill traces the popularity of this musical form in minstrel shows, black recreational singing, vaudeville, early recordings, and in the barbershop revival of thes.
In his exploration of barbershop, Averill uncovers a rich musical traditiona hybrid of black and white cultural forms, practiced by amateurs, and part of a mythologized vision
Earn Four Parts, No Waiting: A Social History Of American Barbershop Quartet Rendered By Gage Averill Exhibited In Booklet
of smalltown American life.
Barbershop harmony played a central and overlooked role in the panorama of American music, Averill demonstrates that the barbershop revival was part of a depressionera neoVictorian revival, spurred on by insecurities of economic and social change, Contemporary barbershop singing turns this nostalgic vision into lived
experience, Arguing that the "old songs" function as repositories of idealized social memory, Averill reveals ideologies of gender, race, and class, This engaginglywritten, often funny book critiques the nostalgic myths especially racial myths that have surrounded the barbershop revival, but also celebrates the civicminded, participatory spirit of barbershop harmony.
The contents of the CD have been replaced by a companion website with helpful links, resources, and audio examples,
.