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Nicholas Dayton
Lewis
English 3
5/10/15
The History of Barbershop Harmony
An arena of 20,000 people's roars decrescendos to a peaceful silence as the quartet steps
to the microphone in hopes of winning the Gold in the International Barbershop Harmony
Competition. They've practiced and trained for years, yet it all started with about 26 men on a
rooftop in Tulsa. The origins of barbershop harmony as we know it originally came from African
American singing of yore, later picked up by minstrel performers, and finally forming an organized
society of barbershop singers and music.
With room for argument, it is generally understood in this day in age that barbershop
harmony has its origins in African American singing. There isn't much evidence of early
barbershop singing in the late 1800's/early 1900's, but we can infer from what information IS
available that barbershop harmony was originally performed by African-American groups. Black
gospel singing during the late 1800's closely resembled barbershop quartet music as we know it
today (Henry 14). Mainly in the south, early popular harmonizing occurred in churches and other
organized institutions. In James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson's The Books of
American Negro Spirituals, ick up four colored boys or young men anywhere and the chances
are ninety out of a hundred that you have a quartet.(35). Johnson continues to describe: In the
days when such a thing as a white barber was unknown in the South, every barber shop had its quartet, and
the men spent their leisure time playing on the guitarand armonizing.I have witnessed some of these
explorations in the field of harmony and the scenes of hilarity and backslapping when a new and rich chord

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was discovered... In this way was born the famous but much abused arber-shop chord. (36). Some

popular southern musicians who have been known to harmonize with others, or at least
incorporate it into their music are the likenesses of Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Scott
Joplin. Another example of how barbershop harmony was first explored by African-Americans is
the existence of a song entitled lay That Barber Shop Chordin 1910. The front cover of this
music featured a drawing of an African American man, Bert Williams, and is one of the first times
the phrase arbershopwas publicly used as a means of this music ( he African-American
Roots. Though the first recording of the song featured a white quartet, there are many indications
of African-American influence within the song itself. Though this form of harmonizing wasn't a
very popular means of music during the time, it eventually led to some wide-spread fame.

With the discovery of black gospel harmonizing, whites began to investigate and imitate
what they heard for their own minstrel shows. White performers used black face in vaudevillian

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(and minstrel) shows while singing that four part harmony they had associated with the AfricanAmericans. This meant they were singing an already somewhat developed barbershop sound
(Henry 14). The blacks also had minstrel shows that would feature barbershop style tunes, though
it didn't become very popularized until the whites decided to perform them in their minstrel
shows.
Because the barbershop sound was growing and becoming more well-known, this meant
that there were more recording opportunities for that style of music by the whites. Recording
opportunities during this time did not come often at all, so it was a real important step to have
someone, anyone, record this kind of music. Because of certain recording limitations and who had
the opportunity to actually record the tunes, the barbershop sound further evolved and flourished
to become more of how we know it today. Over time the sound adapted to certain situations and
certain performers, especially to those recordings that would end up actually being published into
the world (Wright and Krause, 5). This combination of white tradition and black tradition in music
created a mixing pot of harmony, if you will, to give the barbershop sound its signature
luminescence. Eventually, with the popularity of minstrel shows growing, new songs grew, some
specifically by Stephen Collins Foster, a very popular minstrel songwriter during that time. He had
been studying the African-American style of harmonizing and applied that to his music for the
minstrel shows. Many now very popular Barbershop songs arose from his writings, giving us a
direct link to the history before us (Wright and Krause, 5).
Through all of this time, Barbershop Harmony never really truly grew into a substantial,
tangible, concept. It was always subjective ground, no one really knowing how to define it. Every
group of musicians had their own ideas of what the music represented and that all depended on
their personal circumstance. Different people in different places all had their own concept of

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barbershop harmony and it was never really resolved... until a spectacular day in 1938.
O.C. Cash was a tax lawyer who changed barbershop forever. One day in 1938, Cash
decided to invite about 14 of his friends to a rooftop in Tulsa to have a ongfestwhere they
would all get together sing barbershop music. Cash states in the famous invitation: n this age of
Dictators and Government control of everything, about the only privilege guaranteed by the Bill
of Rights not in some way supervised and directed, is the art of Barber Shop Quartet singing.
(Cash, O.C., and Rupert Hall). Cash continues, herefore, we have decided to hold a songfest
on the Roof Garden of the Tulsa Club on Monday, April 11, at six-thirty p.m. This eventually led
to the creation of the Barbershop Harmony Society, a society still in effect until this day (Kerr,
Grady). It ended up being that 26 people showed up, as opposed to the 14 invited, some crashing
the party. It was from that day forth, that they formed the Barbershop Harmony Society. These
meetings continued and as each week passed, more and more people began to show up,
eventually being home to 150 people a week! This was the formation of the ulsa Chapterof the
Society. Eventually, this chapter had a domino effect on other places and now we have a chapter
for each region of the United States of America as well as many international chapters. In 1939,
O.C. Cash had the idea to have a Barbershop Quartet competition, to keep things interesting
(Kerr, Grady). This competition has evolved into what's currently known as the International
Barbershop Competition, and is still the goal of any barbershop quartet to win, to this day.
Clearly, Barbershop Harmony has taken many forms within early African-American
singing, minstrel shows, and in its final form of the Barbershop Harmony Society. We saw this
through some notable southern African-American musicians' personal experiences, older
recordings and music ( lay That Barber Shop Chordfor example), and the coming together of
26 men on a rooftop. We can understand from all of these examples that the pure joy and

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addiction of singing close harmony has changed music history as we know it. Over time the
definition of arbershop Harmonyhas changed dramatically. Currently, Barbershop has taken a
turn from singing old standards, to jazzy arrangements of more popular songs, many involving
scatting interludes. In the words of Barbershop legend Jim Henry, lot of things have changed,
but that spirit that gripped those singers from two turns of the century ago, is just as fresh and
palpable today.So, who knows where Barbershop Quartets will go from here! But no matter
where barbershop goes, it will always have its roots in togetherness, bonding, and creating magic
out of silence.

Works cited:
Cash, O.C., and Rupert Hall. "Original Invitation 1938." Letter. 6 Apr. 1938. The Barbershop
Harmony Society, n.d. Web. 10 May 2015. <http://barbershop.org/original-

invitation-

1938.html>.
Henry, Dr. Jim. "The Historical Roots of Barbershop Harmony." The Harmonizer. The
Barbershop Harmony Society, n.d. Web. 10 May 2015. <http://barbershop.org/news-aevents-main/208-roots-of-barbershop-harmony-article.html>.
Johnson, James W, and John R. Johnson. The Books of American Negro Spirituals: Including the
Book of American Negro Spirituals and the Second Book of Negro Spirituals. New York:
Viking Press, 1940. Print.

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Kerr, Grady. "1938 Was a Very Good Year." Barbershop.org. The Barbershop Harmony Society,
n.d. Web. 10 May 2015. <http://barbershop.org/1938-was-a-very-good-year.html>.
Kerr, Grady. "It All Started with 26 Men on a Roof." Barbershop.org. The Barbershop Harmony
Society, n.d. Web. 10 May 2015. <http://barbershop.org/26-men-on-a-roof.html>.
"Play That Barber Shop Chord." YorkSpace. University of York, n.d. Web. 10 May 2015.
<http://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/handle/10315/9684>.
The African-American Origins of Barbershop Music, and Why It Matters, by Dr. David Wright.
Perf. Dr. David Wright. YouTube. N.p., 6 Feb. 2015. Web. 10 May 2015.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB5oSVOkPK4>.
Wright, Dr. David, and David Krause. HISTORY OF BARBERSHOP. Nashville, TN: The
Barbershop Harmony Society, 14 July 2009. PDF.