Barbershop Harmony: The Timeless Tradition of Quartet Singing 

On behalf of The Newfangled Four, thank you for your kind words and acknowledgment. This video was very well done, and we're honored to have such a spotlight cast on us.

AMAZING VIDEO

I wish we could have dwelled on the Notre Dame Medley more! It is most definitely my favorite piece of music i've heard all my life

I'm going to leave this comment to try and get this to blow up, and to show support, because for having 71 subscribers, and making a video essay with this much quality, is not something you see often. and also, you got hooked by the barbershop algorithm, if you couldn't already tell lmao.

60 years ago my brother and I walked into a church hall and heard a chorus singing and knew that was the music for us. We stayed members for the next 20 years. Signing barbershop on stage helped me develop presentation skills that assisted me in my business career.

An incredibly well made video essay. Thanks for representing our hobby so well.

Wow, I didn't realize that COVID cut membership in half! It is great to see Fallon doing current songs on national TV.

One thing that was touched on in the video: We barbershoppers don't sing just the old songs, we do songs by the Beatles, by Billy Joel, and quite a few others. If it's got a melody, we can probably sing it.

Has anyone else out there besides me noticed that the Beach Boys had a great deal in common with Barbershop Quartets?

I just watched your documentary and found it to be very interesting. I am a member of Sweet Adelines International, and while you did mention them, I believe it would have added value to your story if you included some of the top lady quartets. Nonetheless, I found it hard to stop watching! Great job!

Been a Barbershopper for about 10 years now, competed in a few quartets at the District and International conventions. This video is everything I could have hoped it would be. The only thing I would add is a little spotlight on Barbershop choruses: many, MANY members of the BHS, SAI, and other Barbershop societies do not sing/compete in quartets but participate in chapter choruses. The choruses vary in size from less than 12 to over 150. They sing the same 4-part harmony that quartets do and BUDDY it is a spectacle to hear that many people ringing chords. Also, your timing is impeccable - this video released about a week before the 2024 BHS International convention in Cleveland, OH. Thank you!

Crying in the club this video is so fantastic

I would like to add a little to the history, as I recall it. My Father and a couple others formed a Barbershop Chorus in the late 1950's. He ate, drank and lived Barbershop singing for many years. It was always in our home, from chorus rehearsals in our basement to my Dads quartet that rehearsed in any place with acoustics. I joined the SPEBSQSA when I was 12 years old and was in the chorus and attended, as an audience member and as a member of the Chorus, in competitions as well as our yearly local show. I was told that I was the youngest member and frankly I didn't see any other 12 year old's anywhere else. The one competition I was in with the chorus was held in Montreal. We were told that we came in second, however, a bad thing happen, we were disqualified because we had an African American in our chorus. My dad led a local area protest involving a number of other choruses threatening to resign from SPEBSQSA unless the rules were changed and the "white men" only was dropped from the bylaws. And it was dropped. That was around 1960. In 1963 our family moved to another state and for some reason my Dad lost interest in belonging to an official group but did form an informal quartet from church choir members for a number of years. The Buffalo Bills were great and at the same time a problem for Barbershop choruses and that is when it got to an almost professional stage. It started out as an organization that included everyone with or without singing talent. As a chorus the good singers easily drowned out the bad ones but everyone had a good time, then it started to require auditions and choreography and that left out a lot of people that wanted to sing with a chorus and just enjoy it. Not everyone is a showman and many, like myself needed the support of other voices to give me the confidence to go up on stage for a show or a contest and feel good. I personally worshiped the Buffalo Bills and had an opportunity to be on the same stage with them in a local concert where they were the featured attraction. In the finale when every one was on stage and singing "Keep America Singing" I stood proudly next to Vern Reed, the tenor for the Buffalo Bills and he had his hand on my shoulder. What a trip. Anyway, Mr. Reed retired to the city that we lived in, bought his own store downtown and also displayed his products at the local fair grounds for many years during the State Fairs. I was much older then and I introduced myself to him and told him about my experience not only with listening to every record that they recorded, but that few minutes on stage. Every year I would stop by his booth and he would tell me stories about when they were at the top and what it was like to be in a movie, on radio and TV shows as well as the live concerts they did. By that time, only he and the baritone were still alive. I wish that had a happy ending but he died a few years later in an Alzheimer facility, where according to my wife, an RN that worked there, he had no real recollection of all those years of semi-fame and would occasionally have to be stopped as he headed toward the door because he had to meet the guys for rehearsal. Makes me sad just thinking about it. Anyway, thanks for creating this video, it brought back a lot of good memories.

My father sang bass in a number of different quartets in the first half of the twentieth century. He retired from that aspect of his life in 1955 when I was five years of age. He still maintained a close friendship with one of the members of the last quartet he was a part of, I believe the gentleman sang tenor. He had a growing collection at the time of record albums of the annual quartet competitions in the 1950's that were put on by the S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. and we would go to his house to visit and listen to them. It will always be an unforgettable part of my childhood and as I look back even though I listened to my Dad singing various songs with the quartet on recordings that he had made it sure would have been wonderful to have experienced it in real time! That's Life!

Absolutely fantastic video, thank you for sharing our society and art form so well!

I'm aware that there's no way EVERY notable quartet and barbershopper can get a nod in an under-30-minute video, but I'm pretty surprised at the lack of Vocal Spectrum and Tim Waurick. If you liked this video (which I absolutely did, wonderful job!), make sure you check them out, particularly VS's performance of "Go The Distance" from Disney's Hercules. Tim is STILL holding that post, I think.

"different singing parts" - Cuts to Gary Lewis - 😂

This is a wonderful video! Thanks for your hard work on this! The rooftop where the first meeting of SPEBSQSA took place is still standing today in Tulsa, OK, and the society’s founding chapter, the Founders Chorus, still meets every week.

Someone else mentioned it in the comments already, but its crazy that you only have 90 subs! This is some super high quality content!

This video is phenomenal! I've been into Barbershop for all my life (courtesy of my dad) and I've been active in the scene for 7 years but this was still a really enrichening experience! Funnily enough I met NF4 in person without ever having heard of them at BinG!'s (the German equivalent to BHS) 2018 convention where they were invited as a guest ensemble. I had only started actively singing Barbershop 6 months prior and it was my very first convention so I was kinda scared and didn't interact with them all that much but it was quite interesting seeing everyone around me melt in adoration whenever they were around. I'm now the 2024 BinG! Chorus Champion with my chorus so you could say I've come quite a way. For me the most important thing about Barbershop is the community. It truly is a family to everyone involved, you quickly get to know everyone and once you're settled in it quickly becomes a home. Even the 'celebrities' are just normal people at the end of the day and they're generally just as approachable as everyone else, 99.9% of people, no matter if they're first timers or Gold Champions, will say yes if you ask them to sing a tag. For example, I've sung tags with Midtown, the BHS 2023 International Champions (the guys who do the Spider-Man Theme) and we had a great time! Now, of course you can't put everything into a 30 minute video essay but I have to say that I would've like to see the tags and polecats mentioned, since they serve as a big gateway into singing together, no matter the experience or skill level. Also, it would be awesome to have a part 2 that talks more about choruses since they're basically the meat&potatoes to the quartets' heart&soul. They contribute a lot more to the overall membership numbers and they're just as (if not in some areas more) important as quartets are. Choruses are the number 1 biggest contributor to bringing new people into the hobby so it would be wonderful if you could talk about them in a future video.

Not being American, I discovered barbershop harmony trough RU-vid recommendation very recently. Thank you for that history presentation that answers most of my questions.

One of the very few videos that everyone on the internet should be required to watch

Love the Newfangled Four!❤

New fangled 4 is very good. ❤ it, you even included Tony Darosa! :)

Loved this well-put together programme. Great for explaining what I do. Potential for episode two and beyond. You didn't mention a) Ringmasters are Swedish b) barbershop is alive and well in UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand. c) Choruses... Oh and British barbershop is 50 this year

Thank you so much for creating a masterful way to show people what it truly means to be a barber shopper.

Thank you for shedding light on what is in my opinion the most important form of accapella singing there is to date. Incredibly well done.

Looks like the barbershop algorithm picked up your video. I think you’ve done a great job at explaining barbershop at its core for the new and younger audience. Especially with the feature of The Newfangled four. My guess is that you yourself got introduced to barbershop from them. Nice way to pay tribute to them :)

Marvelous job. I have made major presentations on the history of barbershop to a variety of audiences, so I know how difficult it is to capture the scope of this subject in any given time frame. Ethan does a truly marvelous job in the 28 minutes of this video.

Looking forward to having TNF on our show this month! What fun, wrapped up in talent!

Ethan, thanks for a delightful and informative video! Glad to see that you did some research into the various aspects of barbershopping. I know your video focused on quartets, but perhaps a follow-up video could look at barbershop choruses; a LOT more members of BHS sing in choruses but not in quartet. Keep up the good work!

Not only informative but incredibly well made! I’m gonna start sending this to people that ask what barbershop is

I love this society and I love this style, good luck to all the competitors next week❤️❤️❤️

Awesome! Loved seeing snippets of familiar faces in competition as well as listening to Joe, an awesome coach and representation of the genre!

This is amazing!!! Finally something I can show to people that have no clue what barbershop is Thank you Ethan :)

Excellent video! I'll certainly be recommending it to friends who aren't barbershoppers. One note: David Wright said back in 1982 that a characteristic of the style is that it is sung by either 4 men or 4 women. Today, he would certainly also mention the countless mixed barbershop groups, as he has often shown his support for all sorts of singing constellations, notably mixed barbershop in BinG! Barbershop in Germany.

To the narrator: do yourself a favor and check out the barbershop quartet "Fred"

Thanks so much for this really interesting and well put together video!!

watched this all the way through about three times in a row. incredible work, thank you for bringing some attention to our hobby.

Such a lovely overview! I can only add one of the mottoes of the Society: We do this for Fun, Fellowship, and Harmony!🥰😊

As a matter of clarification, OC Cash and Rupert Hall discussed the idea of forming a barbershop harmony club at the Muehlbach Hotel in Kansas City. They were from Tulsa, and that is where the first meeting took place. The voiceover kind of muddies this reference (the voiceover referenced 'when they returned to Tulsa' over a photo of the Muehlbach Hotel, which is where the plaque shown in the video is located). So, the first chapter of SPEBSQSA was founded in Tulsa, the second chapter was founded in Kansas City. This is not a criticism of the video at all; it's great. I just sought to add a bit of clarification.

Great video with musical historical perspective. Love, love love. Thank you. Hey! Let's campaign for Jimmy Fallon to feature Newfangled Four on the Tonight Show!! It's great to be a barber shopper. (Thank you, Papa for always singing to me as a kid.)

I loved the video! The New Fangled Four introduced me to the world of Barbershop during the pandemic and I started singing because of it. I learned a couple years ago that I go to the same college as Dan Wessler of After Hours attended. The style has truly changed my life for the better and I hope to sing in a chorus, if not a quartet, one day.

20:32 let's go baby

An outstanding product, Ethan! It's well researched, well produced, and highly informative. Thank you for shedding light not only on our treasured art form and Society, but on the ways that "singing in community" can enrich lives.

dude the quality here is insane. i feel you may have found a new career

Deadass thought I was watching a WIRED video for a bit there

Bravo! I'll share this with my friends. I've tried to explain what I do, and why I do it. This video does it nicely. Thank you for making it happen.

Thanks for sharing this wonderful video. Great description of our hobby and our passion. Even though I'm an older person, I love the fact that my primary quartet includes a 30 something and 40 something singer and that other of my choruses/quartets have men and women. I'm excited about our future.

I am so excited to partake in my first (and hopefully not only) international competing with a chorus. This video is super well done, great job!! I am so excited to be able to meet so many new people in Cleveland and bring back what I learn to all in my community back home. Thank you for this video ❤

Wow, really great video! I had a very superficial understanding of barbershop quartets before this video, thanks for shedding light on an amazing movement like this, we definitely need more harmony and love in this world!

an amazingly produced video i cannot believe you have ONLY 67 subscribers you will make it BIG i can see it now

Incredible video!

Great production value on an important subject!

Very well done!

This video was so well made!! You should do a whole series of this! The quality of this content can’t be beat, well done!

Nicely done. I've been around and singing barbershop for over 50 years and this is a very cool overview. Thanks!

Excellent job, young man. I think it would be interesting to see a documentary about Barbershop Singing and when the color barrier (especially in quartets) and, most recently, the gender barrier was broken. That would be a cool thing to watch.

I love this video! Its so true! I discovered barbershop through the NF4 and im forever grateful for them! I love their comedy! They will always be my favorite quartet! Always! 🤗.

This is so delightful and I will be sending this to everyone I know so they understand how I spend a…good deal of my time. Also please keep making videos like these!

Yo, great video topic.

What an amazing resource, well done! Great use of that Main Street education video, I always show it to people I am trying to educate on barbershop, it is a beautifully simple yet effective bit of info!

Oh my gosh this was amazing. Keep making videos dude! I loved this.

What a brilliant video. Thank you

Any way this could become one of those youtube videos that everyone has seen and that occasionally pops up on your recommended? Because if so that would be very cool

This is so well done! This is a great FYI about our Society. Thank you!

Outstanding job! Many thanks for the hours, research, and effort you put into this.

Really cool video!

This is so well done!!

Absolutely outstanding!

Outstanding! Great video!

Wait wait wait this video is fire

When was this made? No mention of Everyone In Harmony? I think EIH is an exciting new feature! Otherwise, well done!

Ear Singing! Simple! No other instruments, just four voices. It started by people who were at home, with friends and neighbors trying to copy songs they had heard, or knew, with what they had present. Later it developed into what you hear on those older recordings.

Barbershop is cool

Great job Wessel! My childhood in a video. Can't wait to see where you and BHS go in the future. Also, whats your opinion on Gas House Gang?

Does any one know how. when and where the Society became International?? I do.

Any chance to a video of shape-note singing?

no mention of the B Sharps?

Noice :)

8:32

Women have there own organizations

Barbershop’s demise is self inflicted. RIP

Amazing video! Well done!