From the Library: ‘Nothing but a voice and a microphone’

Miss Marion. “Lida Rose.” Think “Music Man,” the wonderful 1957 Broadway play and 1962 smash movie. Who could forget Miss Marion, River City’s lovely “Madame Librarian.” Or “Lida Rose,” the song sung by four cranky, argumentative school board members who made up a perfect barbershop quartet. Four handlebar moustaches, four straw hats, four voices and a simple way to bring four points of view together. Ah, harmony. And so what’s all this got to do with the Morrill Memorial Library? Read on.

In the Broadway musical and the popular film, the “barbershop” school board was played by the 1950 International Quartet Champions of SPEBSQSA, the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America. Barbershop singing is one of the purely American art forms and has its roots in our African American culture.

Barbershop is a subset of a cappella singing and its strictly pure form includes only four harmonized parts in balanced and symmetrical form and a standard meter. A cappella, or singing without musical accompaniment, is from Italian and means “from the choir or chapel.” Gregorian chant, with its religious roots, is one of the first types of a cappella music. And so Gregorian chant, Madrigal, barbershop and contemporary a cappella, unaccompanied by musical instruments, are all in the same family.

We all remember the “glee club,” or a cappella singing, from high school but did you know that one of the first was the all-male Rensselyrics of Renssalear Institute in 1873? Cole Porter was the most famous member of Yale University’s Whiffenpoofs. Other famous groups emerged from colleges across the United States, among them the female parody of the all-male club, the Smiffenpoofs of Smith College.

College groups, male and female, have grown in great numbers since the 1990s and from their youth and creativity comes some amazing entertainment. Beat-boxing, or impersonating the sound of real instruments, has added amazing diversity and fun to contemporary a cappella singing. The popularity of barbershop-type singing isn’t just an American phenomenon anymore; it has spread across the world and is especially popular among South Asian youth and a rising musical influence in Africa.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to hear contemporary a cappella music you are invited to come and listen on April 26 to Redline Boston. They will be our performing guests at 3 p.m. in the Simoni Room in this fifth concert in the library’s Musical Sundays Series.

Redline Boston is currently made up of 11 young men, most of whom served in the past as music directors in their college a cappella groups. They are all either working fulltime or in graduate school and sometimes both. Josh Brodsky, a member of the group, explained to me that Redline began in the fall of 2007 and Redline is the Boston representative in a networked league of a cappella groups forming around the country in the Contemporary A Cappella Society of America (www.casa.org). The group settled on the name, Redline, for its references to “the T, the Freedom Trail, and the bar in Harvard Square.” The group has had as many as 12 members; most are able to fit in this passion of making music but some leave for graduate school or other commitments.

One of Redline Boston’s gigs was a regular weekly concert last summer at the bar Paddy O’s in Faneuil Hall on Sunday afternoons, May through October. Josh explained, “Some of our other gigs have been a bit more unusual.” Their very first official gig as a group was at a high school “lock-in” (the show started at just after midnight). One of their favorite commissions was being hired by “a romantic 20-something to sing for him and his girlfriend following Valentine’s Day dinner.” They attracted a crowd who, despite the sub-freezing weather, requested an encore. All of Redline Boston’s sounds are produced by their mouths and voices, or as they say, with “nothing but a voice and a microphone.” Some songs do also use claps, snaps, and foot stomps but all of the drum sounds are made using their mouths.

If you’d like to know more about contemporary a cappella music, read “Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory” by Mitch Rankin. Check out the Contemporary A Cappella Society’s Website, www.cacs.org. At the Boston A Cappella Scene’s Web site and you’ll find hundreds of groups – both professional and college groups.

The Eastern trials of Varsity Vocals International Championship semi-finals were held at MIT on March 21 and showcased both college and high school groups.  

My “sound advice” this week is not to miss Redline Boston. As always, the concert is free of charge but we do ask that you register by calling the library, 781-769-0200.

Charlotte Canelli is library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood.