Updated: 8/13/04 11:31 AM "In the beginning, society quartets were judged without regard for specific categories. When the Bartlesville Barflies were crowned champions in 1939, each of the five judges scored all aspects of all performances. In those early contests it was natural to select as judges politicians or others for PR purposes; the assumption was "everyone knows what Barbershop sounds like", and the early winners were the ones who sounded most like Barbershop.

In preparation for the 1941 National contest advance plans were made for the first time as to how the quartets would be judged. Joe. E. Stem, president of the Kansas City chapter, had presented a thought- provoking query "just what is barbershop harmony?" It may seem odd that the Society devoted to preservation and encouragement of barbershop harmony had little understanding of its key term at that time. Typical of the breadth of definitions was one given by a member that year while arguing the perennial question "what is barbershop?"

It was a starting point, and the Society still goes along with his belief that '"barbershop contemplates four-part harmony with a minimum of doubling" and with notes huddled closely together rather than an extremely high tenor and a very low bass. Stem believed it permissible to occasionally change a melody note to improve the harmony, and he suggested that a song pitched too low would sound muddy. He was against musical accompaniment '"for the reason that a quartet should strive to smooth out the rough spots so that no accompaniment is necessary to cover them up" He believed that stage presence should be taken in account, "but a small ratio of points is sufficient , with major emphasis on the quality of the harmony."

All are sound considerations still accepted basically though stated a little differently. To sum up blend Stem said "If you can distinguish which individual is singing bass, baritone, tenor, or lead at a distance of fifty feet, that is an indication that the blending of voices is not good." The St. Louis contest (1941) score sheets gave a breakdown of quartet qualities in terms of "50% Barbershop Harmony and Blending, 25% Song Selection and Originality, and 25% Stage Presentation" which included costuming and showmanship. All judges judged on an over-all basis.

After the 1941 contest (8/5/41) Barbershop Harmony and Blending was raised to 50%, Song Selection and Originality became 25%, and Stage Presence became 25%.. '~

On Dec.1 , 1941 President Carole Adams presented to the Board a preview of matters to be considered at the Chicago mid-winter meeting. Included was an analysis by Hal Staab of questionnaires on judging. The report revealed belief that Stage Presence was relatively low in importance, which applied also to Song Selection, since those questioned felt that any type of popular song was suitable as long as it was sung barbershop style; though nobody defined "barbershop". There was wide variance of opinion about blend. Staab suggested "the blend was only one part of "Voice Expression" into which volume, phrasing, precision and other elements also entered." He recommended that judging at the' 42 national in Grand Rapids be divided into Harmony Accuracy 25%, Song Arrangement 25%, Voice Expression 30%, Song Selection 10%, and Stage Presence 10%.

In 1944, judges were assigned to specific categories for the first time. Harmony Accuracy was given 300 points, Voice Expression 300 points, Song and Voice Arrangement 300 points and Stage Presence 100 points. The system was used until 1948, when "enunciation" and "blend" were taken from Voice Expression and given to Stage Presence and Harmony Accuracy, respectively.

Effective with the 1948 contest "Modern" harmony singing is forbidden. "Modern" harmony consists of the use of enough consecutive sixth, seventh, and ninth, or diminished seventh chords to make it characteristically "modern". We are pledged to preserve barbershop harmony which is characterized by a definite voice arrangement to make the chords. A quartet may lose 300 out of a possible 1000 points if they use this type of non-barbershop harmony.

In the March 1949 Harmonizer Frank Thome, C&J Chairman said, " Under 'arrangement" instead of using the words "song arrangement" , the word "harmonization" is now used and the rules now even more emphatically demand "That the songs be harmonized in a manner that is not contrary to the traditional standards of barbershop harmony". This primarily means that present-day style of modern harmony is still very definitely barred and hope always will be insofar as our quartet singing is concerned."

In 1949, the system was changed again, this time giving 200 points per performance to each judge in each of five categories: Harmony Accuracy, Balance and Blend, Voice Expression, Stage Presence, and Arrangement. Stage Presence judges scored on the basis of the total performance (two songs) whereas the judges in the other categories scored on the basis of lOO points per song. (lan. 1949) Stage Presence now counted for 20% of the score instead of 10%, and all quartets were being judged in five categories, the old Harmony Accuracy and Blend being split into two categories.

"In the past, a quartet that did not stick to barbershop harmony was penalized by the Arrangement judge, under the new rules they were disqualified. " This system was used until 1971 when Voice Expression was changed to Interpretation (still with the same weight) and Arrangement was changed in weighting to plus or minus 20 points per song.

The Arrangement judges were to "determine whether the SONG is acceptable for use in barbershop contests. The judge will listen to the lyrics, melody and rhythmic structure of the song and will ascertain whether the song is representative of the barbershop style. To determine whether the Arrangement of the song is in the barbershop style, all arrangements performed in barbershop contests must be arranged in barbershop style. In the Fall of 1975 we replaced the two categories of Harmony Accuracy and Balance and Blend with a new category, Sound.

In 1988 the Society's Select Committee on the status and future of the Society completed it's 16-month study and made recommendations to the Board. Most were adopted including the following for the C & J Committee:

The Contest and Judging Committee. should establish a list of essential ingredients of the style that will remain constant with time and educate our members as to the need for our performing units to sing music that satisfies these essential ingredients. The Future II Committee recommended that the "C & J Committee should examine each category as to it's pertinence to the Barbershop style and to the vision statement for the year 2000 and beyond, and revise the C & J system accordingly. We believe increased emphasis should be placed on singing in tune and singability, and reduced emphasis placed on staging and non-singing effects and devices."

"Beginning with the 1993 Fall contest season, all competitors are evaluated using a new judging system. Three categories-Music, Singing, and Presentation have replaced the former categories of Arrangement, Interpretation, Sound, and Stage Presence." "These changes were made to reflect the wider audience vision of the total performance and to promote a healthier and more enjoyable approach to preparing for contest on the part of all competitors. The new judging system will promote the kinds of choices by performers that will preserve our barbershop style for future generations."

All judges view the total performance and assess the five elements of the "Common Ground": the preservation of the barbershop style; ringing, in-tune singing; vocal quality; the suitability of the song to the performer; self-expressiveness and heartfelt performance. The Common Ground was considered by some as another category, and was replaced by a re-writing of the three categories. In 2001 the C & J Committee issued papers on the importance of the considerable overlapping of the categories.

In the Introduction to the C & J handbook "Each of the three categories should be a particular orientation or prospective from which the judge views the total performance, rather than a blinder that restricts his focus to a certain domain. To some extent certain elements of a barbershop performance will be evaluated by judges in two, or even three categories. "

So after 64 years, we're still trying to do a better job of judging barbershop singing. We started with the premise that those we picked as judges knew what good barbershop singing was. Now after years of training we have very experienced judges evaluating singer's abilities to sing barbershop at its best: preserving the style and singing songs that best present Barbershop with the best vocal technique and heart-felt performance.

Jack Baird., Archives Committee, Arrangement Judge Emeritus