Talk:The Haydn Quartet

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Are they called the Haydn Quartet (as in the article title) or the Hayden Quartet (with an E) is in the article text? --Camembert

They were the Haydn Quartet, but it was pronounced 'Hay-Den' - you can hear this eg on their 1900 recording of Annie Laurie. They would not have called themselves a barbershop quartet - the term only came to prominence after the 1910 song '(Mr Jefferson Lord) Play That Barbershop Chord' - and certainly what they sang did not conform to contemporary definitions of barbershop music

(note on the above explanation) According to Gage Averill's book 'Four Parts No Waiting' 2003 page 69, 'they later changed the spelling to "Hayden" so Americans could pronounce it.'

[edit] Proposed changes

We surely need to change this article to reflect how the quartet were seen then - using the 'barbershop' label is misleading I believe - they were simply a popular vocal group, one of the 'big three'. They weren't 'undisputed kings'; according to http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/artist_bio.asp?artistId=30 they had 60 top ten hits - cf the Peerless Quartet with 100. At that time the barbershop label of 'lead' would not have been used - there were simply 2 tenor parts.

Comments are solicited before I do the edit.... --Rrex 24March06

Your suggestions sound appropriate to me. -- Infrogmation 01:26, 26 March 2006 (UTC)