Thursday, March 13, 2003
Brothers in harmony
By DEAN SHALHOUP, Telegraph Staff
shalhoupd@telegraph-nh.com.
NASHUA
-- Dozens of different voices bounced around the mostly bare, low-ceilinged
room as David Patterson emerged from the crowd and boomed everyone to attention.
�OK,
gentlemen, let�s go!� was the command, an unmistakable signal for everyone
to reign in all those voices and channel them into the series of tight harmonies
for which they�re internationally known.
In short order,
the men belonging to those silky smooth voices, the members of the Nashua-based
Granite Statesmen Barbershop Chorus, were in their assigned spots on the
four-tiered riser in their house of rehearsal, Nashua�s
Senior Activities Center.
It was time to let the harmony flow.
Patterson,
associate director and bass section leader, was filling in for absent director
Steve Tramack at the Statesmen�s regular Wednesday night rehearsal last week
as they continued tuning up for their 48th annual show Saturday, March 22,
at the Edmund Keefe Auditorium at Elm Street Junior High School.
This
year, two award-winning guest quartets, Revival, from San Diego, the 1998
international quartet champions, and RoadShow, the southern New England-based
2001 Northeastern district champions, will join the hosts on the Keefe stage.
Boasting
a membership of about 90 active singers, the Statesmen are among the largest
choruses in the eastern United States. They are one of 825 chapters across
North America that makes up the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement
of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, headquartered in Kenosha, Wis.
Part
of the Northeastern District, which includes New England, eastern New York,
and Quebec and the Maritime Provinces in Canada, the Statesmen won district
championships in 1992, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2001.
Matt
Mercier, a Granite Statesman since he joined in 1976 at 15, is the organization�s
president. His father, Paul; mother, Jeanne; and sister, Paula; have all
sung barbershop music.
�This has been a great hobby
for me,� Mercier said, as his fellow Statesmen worked on their rendition
of �God Bless America� in the adjacent room. �It�s shaped my life. I feel
very fortunate to have been so many places so young,� he said of traveling
with the group in his teen years.
Until Paul Mercier
died last year, the father-son duo was one of many in the chorus. �Toward
the end, my father came to sing even though he was on oxygen,� Mercier said.
�That�s how much he loved it.�
While on the surface
the first business of choruses and quartets is singing � and winning competitions
� Mercier said it�s important that members not lose sight of barbershopping
as a fraternal organization strong in camaraderie and lifelong friendships.
�For
me, the personal relationships are the most important part,� he said. �I
like to think of us as a fraternal organization that happens to sing. Most
of my best friends come here on Wednesday nights.�
In
the background, Mercier said, the executive board keeps an eye on how things
are going. �Its job is to keep a balance between being competitive and having
fun,� he said. �We�re competitive, we work hard, but we have a lot of fun.
On the whole, we have a very upbeat organization.�
Nevertheless,
there�s no shortage of successes for the Statesmen. �Our hard work pays off,�
Mercier said. �When you get a whole bunch of good friends sharing something
you�re good at, it happens.�
�We�ve been very fortunate
to be able to flourish in Nashua, particularly in the last 10 or 12 years,�
Mercier said. �We�ve had a great run.�
Mercier puts much of the credit for that on the shoulders of Tramack, a 20-year Statesmen singer and director since 1996.
�He�s
a local kid, went to Nashua High, lives in Hudson now,� Mercier said. �He�s
loaded with talent, and with Steve, it�s as much about desire as anything.
He immerses himself in it.�
Tramack, a baritone, is also part of Club NED, the 1999 Northeastern District Quartet champions.
The
Statesmen experience, Mercier said, goes beyond singing and competing. �Competing
is only a part of what we do. We work with other chapters to promote barbershopping,
to keep interest and the quality of singers high.�
Further, he said, the Statesmen
devote
significant energy and resources to its Young Men in Harmony Program, designed
to �propagate the barbershop style of singing.�
�We
work with the schools . . . we try to promote a relationship with them to
get youngsters interested,� he said. �Right now, we have 24 who are either
in orientation or somewhere in the indoctrination process.�
Veteran member Dick White is the group�s singing instructor, the man who works with recruits and walk-ons alike, Mercier said.
Brookline
resident Loring Webster helps White out, he said. �We typically add a dozen
(singers) or so to the chorus each year,� Webster said. �Right now, we have
90 � it�s exciting when you get close to that century mark.�
White
and Webster don�t come to rehearsals empty-handed. �We hand out songbooks,
ones with our current repertoire, part-predominant CDs and membership manuals
that cover everything from soup to nuts,� Webster said. �And we give one-on-one
help to anyone who asks.�
For member Joe Kopka Jr.,
family tradition is what being a Statesman is all about. His father, the
late Joe Kopka Sr. � who, appropriately enough, really was a barber � was
involved in the birth of the Statesmen.
Kopka Sr. and
Nashua Realtor Earl Damon sang for a chapter in Derry in the 1950s, Kopka
Jr. said, when they began the process of founding one in Nashua. �The first
meeting was in February 1955,� he said. With them was a church organist,
Leo Antaya.
It was a half-century earlier, around the
turn of the 20th century, when the uniquely American music style began harmonizing
its first notes.
It was created by �ear harmonizers,�
also called �woodshedders,� who sang without the benefit of printed arrangements.
At the time, the barbershop was a gathering place for the men of the community,
who often would harmonize a popular song while they waited for their haircuts.
Most barbershop tunes were written from 1890 to 1920, the heyday of �Tin Pan Alley� and dance hall melodies.
Technically,
barbershop singing is described as four-part harmonizing without instrumental
accompaniment (a cappella). The melody is carried in the second voice, called
the lead. The tenor harmonizes above the melody, the bass sings the lowest
notes and the baritone fills in the missing notes to complete the chord,
either above or below the melody.
Most vaudeville shows
had a barbershop quartet, although the singers did not use that name. Today,
barbershop harmony is performed with a wide variety of music, much of it
considerably more current, while maintaining the style and harmony from its
roots.
With a respectful eye on their roots and a finely
tuned ear toward their music, the Statesmen today keep barbershop singing�s
rich tradition very much alive, delighting at their annual opportunity to
present their repertoire to a hometown crowd.
But don�t
be surprised to see a smile or two curl from members� lips while they�re
on stage � after all, their emphasis holds fast to their fraternal nature
of just a bunch of guys wanting to have fun.
Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-6523.
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