A friend of mine recently posted a video on facebook. By itself, this isn't a big event. It happens all the time as facebook has somehow become the friend-circle bulletin board of the age. For me however, this video was rather meaningful. How it was/is meaningful is something rather difficult to describe. When we talking about something being meaningful or having meaning, it seems that no two definitions are alike. There are entire PhD dissertations on semiotics and I don't recommend you read any unless you need to catch up on your sleep.
Some people talk about something being meaningful to them, as if it were simply a brief interaction between themselves as a subject and the 'something' as an object. They look at the graffiti on the side of a building as they drive by and think to themselves, 'yeah that's meaningful to me, because i share that worldview.' In these instances, meaning is something that describes a brief connection and interaction between one's self and a recognized similarity of worldview, interest, etc. that may be inside or outside of one's 'situation in life.'
There are others however, who speak of meaning in an enveloping way. Meaning, for them, is something that takes hold of their being and envelopes their entirety within itself. In these instances, meaning is a subjective force that takes hold of their objective reality, governing and shaping them into something different (for better or worse).
For me, I think meaning is a combination of the two. Meaning is something of a mutually subjective interaction for me. In it I find an opportunity to identify aspects of my own life, history, and personhood, and to analyze and speak to those aspects in a deconstructive and constructive manner. But at the same time, meaning is something with which I often myself alarmingly out of control. A song lyric, a painting, a theological insight, a chord progression, etc. Any of these things has the distinct possibility of setting me on my rear-end. Meaning uses these and numerous other vehicles to grasp me, envelope my being, and transform me into something new, different, and hopefully better than I was before.
So where is all this going? Well, I suppose it's fitting that I link you up with two videos that seem to prompt the entire discussion. Here's hoping I can quickly figure out the embed-ing. After the embedded videos go through, I'll say more.
Video #1 - Voices of Gotham - Keep the Whole World Singing
Video #2 - Vocal Majority & Ambassadors of Harmony - I'll Walk With God
The first video was posted by a friend of mine from my undergrad years. We've both spent a decent amount of time in vocal ensembles, some of that time together, and have a similar view of music's meaning and significance. Part of that musical meaning and significance will be explored here, but probably not to the extent which it deserves. The first video is basically the theme song for the Barbershop Harmony Society, which (and I'm dating myself here) used to be SPEBSQSA. SPEBSQSA, for all you people who are acronymically (is that a word?) challenged, stands for the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of BarberShop Quartet Singing in America. Yes, that's a mouthful.
The second video is a response posting by myself back to this friend of mine. It is of two combined barbershop choral ensembles singing in a rehearsal room at the 2010 Barbershop Harmony Society International Convention in Philadelphia. I first heard the song in question on a CD I have wherein one of these aforementioned choral ensembles, The Vocal Majority, sings the song with The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I've also heard the song performed live by the University of Illinois Varsity Men's Glee Club.
Now where sentimentality, as a carrier of meaning, comes into all of this, is in regard to the memories that both of these songs stir up in my past. I've had a pretty extensive life exposure with barbershop singing. My personal stories on the matter will be left for either a comment inquiry or another time. In any case, I remember the songs and the experience of singing alongside others. My experiences of singing have been extensive as well, whether in church choir, college choir, the shower, etc. In this case, in the examination of the sentimentality of barbershop singing, there seems to be an interesting tension for me. Barbershop singing represents a tension between the things I love about singing and the things I loathe about singing. Some of these things are actually on both lists. Since i'm such a pessimist, we'll start with the loathe-list.
First) I loathe groups that find themselves hindered in their quest for betterment by their willingness to coddle or accept anyone in their ranks. This loathing obviously doesn't represent the Christian or Lutheran side of my sociological beliefs. I understand there's a certain degree of hypocrisy there. In any case, I find myself loathing this sort of 'openness' because too much time is spent helping people with the learning curve and not on the improvement of the cohesive unit that, for the most part, seems to have a larger level of commitment to the group than the learning-curve-newbies tend to have. You have to stop in the middle of working on united vowel formation to help the guy who can't figure out which dot on the page he's supposed to sing. It gets tiring and unless you're a driven vocational educator ... takes all the fun out of the experience.
Second) There's a rather high degree of choreography involved in barbershop singing. None of which is really exemplified in these videos. In any case, I am not a 'mover' or a 'dancer.' I barely have rhythm. I also tend to notice that when ensembles, like those shown in the TV show Glee (since nearly everyone has some idea of what that means), do their little dance numbers alongside their singing, the singing suffers. I participate in and join choral ensembles for the singing, not for the occasional choreographed niceties.
Also, and this goes more along the lines of 'movement hinders sound' point from above, when Barbershop singers sing, they move their heads around a lot. There's lots of 'oh yah bob your head with the beat and show enthusiasm in your facial movement and raised eyebrows and ...yawn' going on. When this is a choreographed enthusiasm, I don't like it one bit. When it's natural, and the accidental result of neighbor Jim getting really into the moment/camaraderie, I find it grating. I'm the kinda guy who attends choral performances to listen to the music. I don't go there to watch dozens of people bobblehead their way through a number.
And now for the love list, which you'll notice, has the same items as the loathe list, but from a different perspective.
First) I like that barbershop choruses allow anyone and everyone to attend their rehearsals. Yes, there is a certain degree of auditioning and attendance/fees if you want to become a member of a chorus/chapter. And I realize that shoots my first 'loathe' item in the foot. But the thing I love here is that anyone can attend the rehearsal whether you want to join or just revisit what it felt like to sing in a group. The songs, for the most part, are not that hard. There are enough 'classics' so that you can not feel too lost in the haze. The openness of Barbershop Rehearsals is a soothing thing. I find it odd that their openness seems to evoke a much more sentimental reaction in me than the openness of say, a church. I think this relative difference is due to the fact that when someone stumbles into a church to 'try it on,' 'relive the past,' or 'hear the old old story,' there is a rather large roll of the dice as to whether any of that intention will actually be satisfied. Barbershop rehearsals, seem to have a rather large 'success rate' in making you feel good in the sense of shared participation/camaraderie.
Second) I love the enthusiasm of barbershoppers. Singing is something that gives them happiness. It's evident on their faces and they sing. Their erratic body language in their rehearsals evidences this enthusiasm. It's adorable. At the same time it's .... a little nauseating. It can be annoying from the perspective of the audience member, but at the same time there is something adorable about seeing the unity of passion and enthusiasm. One could be very cynical about the whole thing, saying that this unity is only for the purposes of bravado and machismo. My idealism tends to get the best of me on this one though.
The sentimentality and the meaning of this for me, has to be more than nostalgia. It is indeed that. There is something I have remembered and cherished about singing in such an ensemble of unified passion. I have tried to get back to a similar sense of community, most recently in college. The combination of my own personal desire for academic and personal development led me to try and cultivate the nature of the ensemble and my membership therein. This, in retrospect, may have been a problematic sense of projection. Maybe an over emphasis on my own subjectivity in the matter of meaning making.
Perhaps it's merely a matter of me becoming enveloped in a similar nostalgic environment and letting the experience overtake me so that meaning is a more organic process. Regardless of what I choose, there is definitely something entrancing about the whole consideration. So ... there's that.
