"New" Timberliners' Songs

The RoseCity Timberliners Chorus, that I have the honor of directing, has just premiered three songs in their song set.

The jaunty song "Harmony Leads the Way" simply asserts that music and harmony can bring a better world,  but doesn't give much evidence, so it takes other songs to make the point.  With [bass pickups] and (other guys), the words are:

[One way to live](One way to live), one way to be.
[We are one}(One people joined) in perfect harmony.
*[For ev-ry race](For ev'ry race) for ev'ry creed,
[Yes indeed](for what we need) is perfect harmony.
Arm in arm and heart to heart, soul with soul right from the start.
*[Let it begin](Let it begin) with you and me.
[We'll create](We will create) a world of harmony.
Harmony leads the way, a lifelong cabaret,
Ev'ry day's a harmony holiday.   :||
Ev'ry day's a harmony holiday. Harmony leads the way.

When we :|| repeat from the beginning and sing "loo" between the stars *, our EmCee says:

    "Joined in Harmony" is a pretty good description of folks getting along despite their differences. We barbershop singers make harmony with each other every time we get together. And we make harmony with all you folks when we sing together. So let's make harmony.

"Amazing Grace" was the 1779 result of British sailor and slave-trader John Newton's epiphany in 1748.  He set aside that life in 1755 to join the clergy.    Truly, "a wretch like me, I once was lost."

"Battle Hymn of the Republic" started as a anonymous camp meeting song around 1850 as "O, Brothers will you meet me... on Canaan's happy shore", later gathering a "Glory, Glory, hallelujah" chorus.   The tune became a US. Civil war marching song  as "John Brown's body lies a-mouldring in the grave...his soul is marching on" with every regiment adding lyrics of their own.  The song still keeps getting new lyrics.   You might have heard "John Brown's baby has a cold upon its chest", or "I wear my pink pajamas", or any one of a dozen variations that sports teams use, but the best-known nowadays is Julia Howe's lyrics written in 1861 after hearing the soldier's ditty on the request the regiment chaplain.   That tune still keeps bringing people together. 


The long 24 song set still includes "In the Good Old Summertime" and "God Bless America" and "Darkness on the Delta" with histories that are only a little less interesting, but are pure Americana.


We're just starting to learn the classic 1939 tune "(Somewhere) Over the Rainbow".   Our performance will be more like the Oscar winning song Judy Garland song in "Wizard of Oz" than the medal-winning "Second Edition" quartet" performance, and completely unlike Israel Kamakainwo'ole's 2010 platinum rendition because it's more familiar and easier to learn and sing.    We might even premiere it in 2017.

Timberliners Yuletide 2016

The Rose City Timberliners  Chorus does sixteen performances this December.   The guys wear a colorful collection of winter sweaters, vests, scarves, red hats, and even antlers as they travel all over the Greater Portland area with half-hour and hour concerts of Yuletide favorites. 

Winter 2014 Timberliners

Hear them in a lovely public setting 7 pm SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18 at

The Grotto Festival of Lights

8840 NE Skidmore, Portland Oregon

It's not too late to invite this group to your event.  Merry Christmas!

Timberliners performance routine

I've never quite written up the Timberliner's routine for a performance before, but this is a good opportunity, since we have, instead of a regular rehearsal, 2 gigs:

First:  The Pythian home, 3406 Main St, Vancouver Wa

6:00 pm arrive and gather.  Find a warm up room

6:05 Do an easy warm up in four steps.
    +++And if a singer runs late (traffic will be thick), one can do these solo on the way.
    +++ And if I'm running late, any assistant or section leader can run these
1 ~ breathe in, sing and hold long E, F or G  on  "aw" for 15 seconds,  Make it beautiful, easy and loud.  Several times.
2 ~ while you do that, relax jaw, face, shoulders, stretch.
3 ~ Next, slide that beautiful note around low and high, loud and soft.
4 ~ Next, several 9 note scales key of B, C, C#, D, E, F, F#, relaxed and easy and in tune.

~  Get in something close to our standing order, se we can hear each other and 
~  Sing MayMeMyMoMu, balance and blend and tune, keys G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E.

6:12  Confirm our EmCee and Pitcher and Conductor.   
6: 13 Get out the song list for this gig and sing the starts thus:
    take a pitch, take the chord,  sing two measures.
If it's good, go on.  If it's not, try again.

During this, run one or two songs that likely need it: 
   (This week, though, we likely have them all well :)
6:25  Look at uniforms, gather stuff, then head to the performance room.
 
6:28 Set up chairs, say hello to folks, get in position.
6:30 We sing, EmCee, Pitcher and Condutor get us thru it.
7:00  We stop and greet this audience real friendly.

Note:  One thing we DO NOT DO is criticize our performance where any audience member can hear, EVER.  If you have to tell somebody about a mistake we made, tell us sometime when no one outside the group can possibly hear us.  On the other hand, ALWAYS COMPLIMENT what is WELL DONE in front of anyone you like. 




7:08  Drive to the next gig:
Second: Kirkland Union Plaza, 1414 Kaufman, Vancouver
 
7:13 Set up chairs, say hello to folks, get in position.
7:15 We sing.
7:45  We stop and greet this audience real friendly.
7:55  Drive to  wherever you like next.


Yours,  Gary

Arrangement Difficulty ratings

Hi Gary,
What is it that determines the degree of difficulty of a song?  With recordings, now available, and with 
the different voices prominent, isn't this "rating" 
still important?

Thanks,
DH

Good question.

"Difficulty ratings", even in carefully defined fields like piano playing, are always somewhat subjective. 
Barbershop Harmony website that lists all the arrangements and their difficulties as "easy", "medium" or "hard" makes "Hello, Mary Lou" the standard as a medium difficulty.   I agree.

Any director will  look for things that are neither way too easy nor way to hard in all of several areas:

Barbershop voicing.  (Leads have a hard time learning harmony for more than a few notes)
Range of the parts. (Highest note and lowest note of each part)
Tessitura of the parts.   (Where the part mostly lies:  staying low or high is harder)
Leaps in the harmony parts.  (lots are hard; few are easy)
Key center shifts (are interesting, but hard. "folks dressed up like Eskimos")
Harmonic complexity. (Many accidentals make for tricky singing)
Rhythmic complexity.  (counterpoint and drum-like parts are fun, but tricky)

This demands that directors have a good assessment of their group, what they can do, and how well they do it.  Even one "too difficult" area can make the song never quite fly.

As a side note about considering arrangements for programming, you also consider:

General popularity of the song at its heyday (and if your target audience will know it)

Mood and style of the piece (is it fresh or repetitive in your repertoire?)