barbershoppers...

Dave wrote:

>I don't think anyone doubts that barbershop _harmony_ is justly
intoned,

I have heard many people doubt this. And they have no more evidence
for the doubts than do the people who are convinced it's true.

About 4 years ago, a Barbershopper named Ron Willey tried to get
a set of "master tapes" from a well known quartet - the important part
being
that teach singer had to be recorded on a separate track. Despite months
of parlaying and negotiating, (and us making all sorts of promises
about returning the tapes, not abusing them, giving full credit, etc)
nothing ever came of it.

Until such time as someone is able to analyze a good
quartet note for note (both vertically and horizontally),
we are not going to really know.

Hence, when Dave says:

>Ideally you'd have every singer on a separate track, in which case
you'd probably have to make these recordings yourself.
This would be a major contribution.

I agree wholeheartedly. Though (at least some) quartets do already
record this way, and it would be much more convincing to use
an established group...

So - Aaaron - and anyone else - if you think you can get access to
such recordings, Im sure that there are people on the list (me, if nobody
else) would be both pleased and able to help with the analysis.

--Bill Sethares

Bill- I wish I could do this. I'll see. I may have to wait until I'm
more certainly confident with my own quartet and make it myself.
I'll see if I can talk to Power Play the current gold-medalists
(conicidentally from my district) when I see them at convention
next month. On a side note, I've heard their lead accused of
sometimes singing a tad sharp, indicating that even the best of
the best are not exactly scientifically ideal. Though they are
amazing, the pickiest barbershoppers still think there's room for
improvement.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Sethares" <sethares@e...>
wrote:
>
> Dave wrote:
>
> >I don't think anyone doubts that barbershop _harmony_ is
justly
> intoned,
>
> I have heard many people doubt this. And they have no more
evidence
> for the doubts than do the people who are convinced it's true.
>
> About 4 years ago, a Barbershopper named Ron Willey tried to
get
> a set of "master tapes" from a well known quartet - the
important part
> being
> that teach singer had to be recorded on a separate track.
Despite months
> of parlaying and negotiating, (and us making all sorts of
promises
> about returning the tapes, not abusing them, giving full credit,
etc)
> nothing ever came of it.
>
> Until such time as someone is able to analyze a good
> quartet note for note (both vertically and horizontally),
> we are not going to really know.
>
> Hence, when Dave says:
>
> >Ideally you'd have every singer on a separate track, in which
case
> you'd probably have to make these recordings yourself.
> This would be a major contribution.
>
> I agree wholeheartedly. Though (at least some) quartets do
already
> record this way, and it would be much more convincing to use
> an established group...
>
> So - Aaaron - and anyone else - if you think you can get access
to
> such recordings, Im sure that there are people on the list (me,
if nobody
> else) would be both pleased and able to help with the
analysis.
>
> --Bill Sethares

>>I don't think anyone doubts that barbershop _harmony_ is justly
>>intoned,
>
> I have heard many people doubt this. And they have no more
> evidence for the doubts than do the people who are convinced
> it's true.

I'd be interested to know what you, Dave, Francois, etc, think
of the methods I used in my Barbershop Spectrogram post of a
few years back. The post and related materials are at...

http://lumma.org/tuning/b-shop-spectrogram.zip

(627 K)

-Carl