The Smith Mountain Lake Harmeneers will perform on January 29, at 7:30 p.m. at Ferrum College. The College and the Franklin Guild will sponsor the event, to be held in Sigmon Recital Hall, located in Grousbeck Music Center.
The Harmeneers will present an evening of barbershop favorites. Barbershop is the musical "melting pot" product of African-American musical devices, European hymn-singing culture, and an American tradition of recreational music.
The Smith Mountain Lake Harmeneers present 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 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. Probably the most distinctive facet of barbershop is the phenomenon known as expanded sound. Barbershoppers call this "ringing a chord."
The Smith Mountain Lake Harmeneers formed in 1992 and have been associated with the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America since 1994. Since then, they have produced annual shows and have performed on radio and television.
The performance is free and open to the public. For more information, please call Jody D. Brown, program chair for the Franklin Guild, at (540) 365-4354.
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