Four Harmonizers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Four Harmonizers is a Barbershop quartet that won the 1943 SPEBSQSA international competition.

This quartet from Chicago had also competed in the 1941 and 1942 national contests of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), now known as the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS). Original members of the quartet were Charles Schwab, tenor; Leo Ives, lead; Ed Young, baritone; and Fred Stein, bass. In early 1943, Huck Sinclair replaced Young on baritone.

Their championship performance was almost a disaster. When Ives blew the pitch for their last song, not a sound came out. Luckily, each competing quartet had been given a pitch pipe as a souvenir. Thinking fast, Ives reached in his other pocket for the souvenir pipe, blew the pitch, and the quartet continued on with the song.

Sinclair was furious when they walked off stage, and immediately announced that he quit the quartet. He later relented when they were named the champions.

None of the arrangements they sang were written down. Instead, they improvised the harmonies as they sang, an art known as "woodshedding," a common practice among early Society quartets.

This article on a Barbershop quartet is a stub. You can help by expanding it.