Upcoming Performances for Southwest Pride Chorus
Annual Barbershop Show!
2 March 2012 7:30 pm - Duncan Simmons Center - Duncan, OK
3 March 2012 7:30 pm - McMahon Auditorium - Lawton, OK
More events to be announced!
History of the Lawton-Duncan Southwest Pride Chorus
The Lawton Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society was organized in 1963 and chartered in 1965. The Duncan Chapter was chartered in 1973. In 1982 the two chapters merged to form the Southwest Pride Chorus. We are laymen from all walks of life who love to sing the old harmony songs. We work hard but we have fun while we are working. We sing for various groups around the area and sometimes compete in the Northwest Division and Southwest District level of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Any man interested in "busting a chord" with us can attend our regular meetings.
The Southwest Pride Chorus was the Small Chorus Champions in 2008 competition in the Barbershop Harmony Society Southwestern District North West Division.
Open Invitation
Any guy or youth (of any age) interested in singing with us can attend any of our regular weekly meetings. Here are directions to our meeting rooms: http://tinyurl.com/SWPMeetingplace. We are always glad to have new people join us in song. Please feel free to attend any of our meetings. If you'd like to be added to our mailing list, or get more information about us and our meetings, feel free to Contact Us!
Weekly Chapter Meetings
Our regular meetings are in Lawton at the First Presbyterian Church (see first Google map below for Lawton OK First Presbyterian Church at 13th and B Avenue) on the first, third and fifth Mondays of each month.
The meetings are in Duncan at the First United Methodist Church (see second Google map below for Duncan OK First United Methodist Church at 2300 N Country Club Rd) on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. All regular meetings begin at 7:30 pm.
What is the Barbershop Harmony Society?
The Barbershop Harmony Society was formerly called the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quarter Singing of America or SPEBSQSA. The Barbershop Harmony Society is devoted to promoting, preserving, and enjoying a special form of harmony known as barbershop. But what makes a particular song or arrangement "barbershop-able"? What's the difference between barbershop and doo-wap, jazz, madrigal, and other acapella music? Technically speaking, barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied singing with three voices harmonizing to the melody. The Lead usually sings the melody, with the Tenor harmonizing above the lead. The Bass sings the the lowest harmonizing notes and the Baritone provides in-between notes, either above or below the lead to make chords (specifically, dominant-type or "barbershop" sevenths) that give barbershop its distinctive, "full" sound.
History of the Barbershop Harmony Society
While traveling to Kansas City on business, Tulsa tax attorney O. C. Cash, happened to meet fellow Tulsan Rupert Hall in the lobby of the Muehlebach Hotel. The men fell to talking and discovered they shared a mutual love of vocal harmony. Together they bemoaned the decline of that all-American institution, the barbershop quartet, and decided to stem that decline. Signing their names as "Rupert Hall, Royal Keeper of the Monor Keys" and "O. C. Cash, Third Temporary Assistant Vice Chairman" of the "Society for the Preservation and Propagation of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in the United States", the two invited their friends to a songfest on the roof garden of the Tulsa Club on April 11, 1938. Twenty-six men attended that first meeting and returned the following week with more friends. About 150 men attended the third meeting, and the grand sounds of harmony they raised on the rooftop created quite a stir. A traffic jam formed outside the hotel.
While police tried to straighten out the problem, a reporter of the local newspaper heard the singing, sense a great story, and joined the meeting. O. C. Cash bluffed his way through the interview, saying his organization was national in scope with branches in St. Louis, Kansas City and elsewhere. He simply neglected to mention that these "branches" were just a few scattered friends who enjoyed harmonizing, but knew nothing of Cash's new club. Cash's flair for publicity, combined with the unusual name (the ridiculous initials poked fun at the alphabet soup of New Deal programs), made an irresistible story for the news wire services, which spread it coast-to-coast. Cash's "branches" started receiving puzzling calls from men interested in joining the barbershop society. Soon, groups were meeting throughout North America to sing barbershop harmony. SPEBSQSA was born.
http://www.barbershop.org/