A Cappella Harmony
Cooking
A Cappella Harmony
A
Cappella harmony: the art of blending voices without instrumental
accompaniment is a hobby of both of ours... Dave likes to sing, and
Lynette likes to listen. There's a wide range of styles possible,
from classical to jazz, barbershop to beat-box. These are some
groups that Dave is (or has been) a part of:
This
is a mixed, contemporary a cappella group. Total membership is
typically around twelve people, and arrangements may have from 4 to 9
or 10 distinct vocal parts, plus vocal percussion. We sing a
variety of musical styles, from country to jazz, classical to rock, all
arranged for voices only.
The NCHB is an organization dedicated to "
Extreme Quartetting" in the barbershop harmony style. Each
year, members get a packet of 10-12 songs to learn (from memory).
In January, we show up in Southern Pines, NC for a weekend of
full-contact, slam-dunk, no-holds-barred barbershop. Each member
is assigned to a quartet upon arrival, and competes for bragging rights
in a contest later that evening. The song with which the quartet
will compete is assigned to them from the song packet about an hour
before the contest. On Saturday of the Brigade weekend, a massed
chorus composed of all those quartetters performs a show for the
community. In between all that, and late into the night both
Friday and Saturday, is the real meat of the weekend... finding three
other parts (barbershoppers sing Bass, Baritone, Lead, or Tenor) and
ringing as many chords as you can, in as many different configurations
as you can. The NCHB is the mother of the Extreme Quartetting
movement, and has birthed a number of
other, regional Brigades across the country.
These are both choruses affiliated with the
Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS).
Barbershop harmony
is one of the two indigenous American music forms (the other is jazz).
These groups perform in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of
North Carolina, and compete as part of the
Dixie District of the Barbershop Harmony Society.
This
quartet (now retired) was composed of guys from both Virginia and North
Carolina, and was a performance-only quartet. This was actually a
pre-existing quartet that I joined in 2005 when they needed a new bass.
In the 1+ year we sang together, we maintained an extensive
performance schedule for public and private events across Virginia and
North Carolina.
- Other groups (whose web sites no longer exist) include:
Well, actually,
PRISM
does have a website, but Dave's not on it.
PRISM started as a
chapter quartet of the HOCC, above, and sang for a number of chapter
shows and other performances. In 2007, several of the quartet
wanted to get more serious, and Dave bowed out because he was getting
busy in
Looney Tunes. PRISM went on to find a great bass, and that configuration can be seen
here.
This
quartet, composed of members from Charlotte, Cary, and Hillsborough, NC
and from Pennsylvania, wasn't together long... it was put together for
the sole purpose of competing at the Dixie District quartet contest in
2005. In it's only appearance, it nearly cracked the top-10, but
finished instead in the mic-tester (11th place) slot. Members
were Randy Dills (tenor), Jim Adams (lead), Joe Kane (bari), and Dave
(bass).
Pyramid was an incredibly fun quartet to sing with. Composed of Dale Bieber (tenor), Jim Adams (lead),
Joey Hart (bari), and Dave (bass), we were together from 2002-2005.
We performed throughout NC, and competed numerous times
in Dixie District quartet contests, placing as high as 9th in the
Southeast, and developed a loyal group of fans.
This
was my first barbershop quartet, and it was active from 1998 'til 2002.
It consisted of George Cherny (tenor), Jack Deere (lead),
Steve Mark (bari), and Dave (bass). City Market performed across
the Triangle area of NC, and placed as high as 9th in Dixie District
competetions.
OK,
so Collage wasn't strictly an a cappella group, but we did sing some a
cappella pieces. Collage was formed by a group of friends in Roanoke,
Virginia who had attended
Bridgewater College together, and sung in some of the same groups (
Chorale,
Concert Choir,
Oratorio Choir).
It was originally formed in response to a need for a performing
group for a service at one of the members' churches. We had so
much fun learning and performing music together, that what started as a
one-time thing morphed into an ongoing performing partnership.
There were many configurations of the group, which ranged from
3-6 people at any given time. We sang a variety of sacred and
secular music, for church services, banquets, and other events between 1992-1994.
Collage finally disbanded when Dave & Lynette moved to North
Carolina. Members were: Leigh Beard, Wendy Anderson, Scott &
Mindy Sarver, Carol Elmore, and Dave Minnich.
Cooking
A few of our favorite recipes, here to share with those who've asked
for them.
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