Barbershop Chorus

Barbershop is a style of four-part singing to blend as one voice, creating full music so that accompanying instruments become unnecessary. The four parts are tenor, lead, baritone and bass. It is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music. Generally, the lead sings the melody, the tenor harmonizes above the melody, and the bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes. The remaining middle notes are provided by the baritone, who weaves around the lead, abandoning conventional voice-leading to fill out the harmony and complete four-part chords and thus creating the beautiful sound unique to Barbershop music.

Barbershop quartets and choruses started in America, but they have now spread to many countries around the world. The repertoire of choruses includes current popular songs, as well as songs from Broadway shows, Gospel songs, spiritual and folk songs.

Barbershop singing is performed both by men's and women's groups; the elements of the barbershop style and the names of the voice parts are the same for both.

   Westcoast Chordsmen at Bentley Seniors October 2020