An Evening with Argonauts Quartet

Details

Argonauts Quartet full profile / Acapella Quartet (TTBB) / 4 musicians

Other players: Iain Haukka, Andrew Forsyth, Drew Osterhout, Mark Heathershaw

Full program notes

Join Argonauts on a musical odyssey through time and space interpreted through the lens of the uniquely American popular folk art form known as Barbershop Harmony.

You'll learn about what makes Barbershop unique and exciting, experience, experience a diverse selection of all-acapella music, and even be invited to join us in creating harmony of your own!

Historical context

Many of the pieces we'll perform this evening were arranged as "contestable barbershop" according to the rules of the Barbershop Harmony Society. There are several components that make a song "barbershop", including:
- all acapella singing
- consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a primarily homorhythmic​ (the same word sounds at the same time)​ texture
- melody consistently sung by the lead​ (second tenor)
- emphasis on the use of secondary dominants and circle of fifths harmonic motion

Barbershop harmony is based in African-American traditions of the late 1800s in the American South. Follow this link for more information on how barbershop harmony came to be what it is today: https://www.barbershop.org/about/history-of-barbershop/roots-of-barbershop-harmony

Videos from this ensemble