The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn The SPEBSQSA Keeps On Singing This is a postscript to the reports on my recent week in Washington. From Monday to Friday, I sat listening in fascination to the...
...They then asserted that the right of peaceable assembly doubtless included quartet singing and suggested that those who wished to preserve this remaining vestige of human liberty meet at a certain time and place...
...In a word, I attended the sixteenth annual international convention of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America...
...The losers always accepted defeat with good grace...
...The confrontation was completely unexpected...
...The new Premier, for some time a symbol of national resurgence to French youth, has pledged a bold program of attack on the nation's chief problems...
...They believe that expression through music is good...
...But the onlooker receives no impression of class differences...
...Each group is penalized if its performance runs less than four minutes or more than six...
...I left in a state of mind which was new to me...
...The spontaneity of this was characteristic...
...And then I went from that world of corrosive suspicion into a world of decent, cheerful, typical Americans...
...their musical standards become increasingly strict...
...Sigmund Spaeth and Geoffrey O'Hara have taken a deep interest in their activities...
...The tenor is a banker, the lead is a hand in a shoe factory, the baritone is an elevator man, and the bass is a garbage collector...
...The whole population of this country seemed riddled with evil and suspicion...
...All this started in Tulsa, Oklahoma just 16 years ago...
...Keep America Singing...
...It needs nobody's influence...
...A couple of fellows got together and sent out a letter to a few friends...
...The organization has 670 chapters scattered all over this country and Canada and as far away as Guam and the Canal Zone...
...It was only by exercising conscious control that I could restrain myself from asking my wife or the hotel clerk or the elevator man whether they had adequate clearance from the proper board...
...During their recent convention, the SPEBSQSA's headquarters were at the Hotel Statler...
...The letter, which has been preserved, shows that the idea was not completely simple...
...And as they go on...
...I heard stories of men who have sung their way back from discouragement and depression...
...No church, no school, no Government agency had anything to do with it...
...The meetings are largely devoted to song...
...These are decent people, and they behave themselves wherever they go...
...One evening...
...The members have their own anthem...
...Suddenly, in the lobby filled with Barber Shoppers appeared the President of the United States...
...The meetings were held in Convention Hall, which seats 3,400...
...Harry Truman has long been a member...
...after my week with McCarthy, it struck me as a wonderful idea...
...The entertainment at each regional or international convention is furnished by contests of quartets or choruses...
...Among these were Al Smith and Fiorello LaGuardia...
...But the organization has gone far beyond looking for celebrities...
...See that quartet...
...The ideal is to have every member a singer in a quartet or a chorus...
...The remark was repeated so often that I was justified in thinking that these men are conscious of their democratic variety and very proud of it...
...Music critics have given advice...
...But the main idea is to have fun...
...The judging is very technical and very strict...
...The authors mentioned dictators and Government control of an increasing number of things...
...I don't know how many singers were on hand...
...And that is the way the organization has run its affairs...
...It is completely spontaneous, completely controlled by its members...
...I suppose it is easy to overrate a thing like this...
...Nothing had been prepared...
...Fifteen judges rate the performers on arrangement, harmony, voice expression, balance and blend, and stage presence...
...It has become their natural medium of communication...
...As I wandered about and got acquainted with people, there was one thing which I kept hearing over and over...
...I was inclined to look back over my shoulder...
...President Eisenhower went to the hotel to address a meeting...
...But these hundreds of men, without any direction or even anyone to give them the pitch, instantly started Keep America Singing and sang it through perfectly and with that tremendous, steady volume which marks their choral work...
...Throughout the sessions which I attended, there was spontaneous evidence of good sportsmanship...
...In the beginning, celebrities were sometimes sought out for the sake of their names...
...Don't let me give you the idea that any bum who feels moved to let out his voice can join a quartet and turn his vocal chords loose on the community...
...One of the leaders has said: "The unwritten records of the society are dotted with instances where the acquisition of a new interest has renewed hope and ambition, given a new outlook and consequently a new lease on life...
...From Monday to Friday, I sat listening in fascination to the McCarthy hearings...
...He sees only a lot of jolly, good-looking young fellows having a fine time together...
...It was always packed to the doors, and there must have been very few there who were not regular delegates...
...Members would say to me: "Look...
Vol. 37 • July 1954 • No. 27
