Barbershop harmony convention, CouvFest on tap in Vancouver

Somewhere along the line, music stopped being sound produced by human beings with their bodies. It started being sound that’s generated, transformed and amplified by electronics and software. Drum machines and effects pedals. Synthesizers and Auto-Tune.

Want to hear the opposite of all that? Stop by the Hilton Vancouver Washington this weekend and take in the unique glories of human harmony singing. The public is welcome as the nationwide Barbershop Harmony Society holds its annual regional Evergreen District convention and contest — an extravaganza of sweet and stirring vocalizing that may well have you floating above the floor by the time you walk out the door.

That’s not such an exaggeration. The holy grail of barbershop-quartet singing is something called the “ringing chord” or even the “angel’s chord,” which happens when four voices blend in such perfect harmony that they generate an exquisite auditory illusion — a soaring fifth voice that lifts everybody off their feet. Singers who strive for that effect describe it as a quasi-spiritual, quasi-sensual experience.

“There’s nothing like that ringing chord,” said Duncan Gilman, one of the Evergreen District organizers. “It’s very addicting.”

“When it’s done right, there’s a tingle to it. Your skin prickles, the hair stands up on your neck,” said Doug Watson, another local organizer. “It’s absolutely delightful.”

You can sample some of that musical elevation at 6 p.m. Oct. 14, when the convention comes together for four-plus hours of top-16 quartet semi-finals; at 10 a.m. Oct. 15 when larger choral groups take the stage; and at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 15 for quartet finals, followed at 8:30 p.m. by the “Show of Champions,” featuring all the winners in quartet and choral categories. That includes folks who took on the challenge of quickly cramming assigned parts at home, and then getting randomly distributed, at the event, to instant quartets and choruses called “Harmony Platoons.”

Black beginnings

The term “barbershop quartet” may bring to mind well-heeled white guys in dandy barber-pole jackets and those flat little straw hats. But that’s the marketing-campaign look of a second-generation, 20th century revival. This style of close-harmony signing first emerged in the late 1800s in African-American neighborhoods — social parlors and street corners where it first took the nickname “curbstone” singing. Eventually it was permanently identified with that early (and ongoing) black American community center, the barbershop.

“It is a unique American art form,” Watson said. “It combines the best of jazz, gospel and folk, but it’s all done a capella” — that is, with no instrumental accompaniment and no score. And certainly no Auto-Tune.

Also, no women. The Barbershop Harmony Society “is a fraternal brotherhood of like-minded guys” who’ve adopted group singing as a hobby, Watson said. But many barbershop singers are married to Sweet Adelines, which is the equivalent women’s organization, he said. The annual regional Sweet Adelines convention was held in May in Spokane. Learn more about Sweet Adelines International at sweetadelines.com.

Because it does take time and focus, barbershop singing tends to attract retirees with time on their hands — but Watson said there’s also a rise lately in younger guys who find tight-harmony singing totally hip. Even hipper than electric guitars and drum machines.

CouvFest

If all that still seems hopelessly old-school to you, try CouvFest. The annual festival showcasing the best of Vancouver and Southwest Washington’s bands has bopped around our ever-changing downtown since it launched a few years ago; this year, for the first time, it’s headed indoors at the Kiggins Theatre.

Sixteen bands, including some area favorites like Lincoln’s Beard, Foreign Talks and Acoustic Minds, will keep the place rocking late, Oct. 14 and 15. See the whole lineup at CouvFest.com.

One special treat during CouvFest: A band called Quiet! will give you a time-lapse glimpse of our own Uptown Village streetscape — as witnessed and translated into music by bandleader Chris Read, the owner of Main Street shop Arnada Naturals.

Read composed an entire album of slightly ’60s-psychedelic-sounding tunes based on passers-by and changing seasons called “Lotus Flowers”; Quiet! will perform the whole thing starting at 7 p.m. Oct. 15.

CouvFest 2016 will also feature vendors and snacks, a beer garden inside the theater and a Halloween theme. The event is open to all ages until 9 p.m., when it becomes 21 and up only. Admission is free.