Volume 3, Number 5 October, 2015 Page 1

Troubadour

Earl Meseth, editor Member, PROBE (Public Relations Officers and

Bulletin Editors) 15611 Glen Dale Lane

Homer Glen, Illinois 60491 815-838-1953

earlm@elmhurst.edu

Published as the spirit moves, Troubadour is the official publication of the Will-Cook Illinois Chapter of SPEBSQSA. The Will-

Cook Chapter is the home of the Knights of Harmony Chorus

Leadership Team President …………...……………Lou Gonzalez Membership ………………....… Earl Meseth Music & Performance …....Rich Davidson Marketing …………………………...Dave Beck Program …………………………...Al Munneke Secretary …….……………….……..Hank King Treasurer…………………….…..Ken Witowski Member-at-Large …………………..Ed Brusic Member-at-Large ………………....Paul Cook Member-at-Large …………...Paul Marietta Member-at-Large……….……...Frank Palko Musical Director…………..Bill Kerschbaum Asst. Director…………………..Rich Davidson

The Chapter and Chorus meet on Thursday evenings at 7:30 PM alternating between the

First Congregational Church, 700 Ninth Street in Lockport and

Glory to God Church, 18401 66th Avenue in Tinley Park

Will-Cook 10th in Fall Contest

The Knights of Harmony put 21 men on stage in a contest that included Bloomington’s Sound of Illinois and Northbrook’s New Tra-dition who easily captured the #1 and #2 spots over Chicago West Suburban’s West Towns by 138 points. Those performances over-shadowed that of all the other choruses which had no hope of win-ning. All others might just have been in the contest for “evaluation only”. That being the case, our evaluation (score 673) puts us at the level of a high-C level, according to one of the judges, and should in no way be discouraging. In fact, we matched the 2012 Spring scores from our last contest try (score 681) and 10th place finish, when we competed as “Joliet”. So, is there value in going to contest and not seeing the results we might want? The answer to that should be a resounding YES! Polishing two songs to perform before judges forces everyone to pay attention to how they perform, how they move and how an au-dience reacts. It makes everyone sing better and listen to other parts, adjusting to fit making sure that the cut-offs are correct, eve-ryone is in tune, notes are given their correct value, moves are right and in synch. Now here’s the most important part...techniques and practices honed for these two songs should carry over to ALL our songs. In fact, every song we sing, from “The Old Songs” to “Keep the Whole World Singing” during rehearsals, should be sung with the same panache and style. If that is done then performing in contest is highly valuable very much worth it. Singing in contest makes you a better singer no matter whether you come in first or last. The winner, Sound of Illinois, recreated a dock-side Mississippi River scene straight out of a Mark Twain or Edna Ferber (Show Boat) novel. Seventy-five sweating, tired men loading a riverboat for the long trip north, paused to pay tribute to ‘Ol Man River and then segued into excitement and anticipation with Here Comes The Showboat. The story that each of these songs conveyed was written on the face each man on stage and you could almost smell the Mississippi mud. They’ll represent Illinois well in Nashville. Turn to Contest, Page 2

Volume 3, Number 5 October, 2015 Page 2

Contest from Page 1

I actually picked 11 out of the 12 quartets to make it to the final 13 competitors! The thing was, though, I had the top four horribly out of order. Clearly, After Hours was the best of them all in both the semis and final sets. Their 2083 score (86.8%) puts them in good position for the International in Nashville. Following them was Union Station (S. Davis, O. Merrill, J. Giallombardo, J.W. Davis) with 1848 points (77.0%), Velvet Hammer (C. Stevenson, C. Weber, G. Martin, D. Stern) with 1814 points (75.0%) and Drive Time (T. Mahannah, T. Pashon, A. Isbell, R. Han-sen) scoring 1753 points (73.0%). I had Velvet Hammer in 2nd and Drive Time in 3rd. I always liked Greg Martin’s bosso profundo, the timbre of Andy Isbell and Tim Pa-shon’s lead so maybe that colored my picking a bit. After Hours and Union Station will represent Illinois at Interna-tional.

The Convention What about the Convention itself? How did it compare to others in the past? Events VP Will Thorndike does a superhuman job in providing District membership with the finest hotel and venue he can find and stay within the average attendee’s budget. Some things are simply not within his control. The lack of singing opportunities at the hotel is probably because there were two weddings

scheduled for Saturday evening and remember Cannon #6 in the Code of Ethics: “We shall refrain from forcing our songs upon unsympathetic ears.” These weddings also eliminated room availability for any large hospitality rooms (or even small ones). I did note that the District President hosted one in his suite (jammed), DuPage held one as did Northbrook. Singing in the public spaces (lobby, bar, etc.) was minimal. The President’s Reception, usually held after the quartet semis on Friday night, did not happen probably because of the number of quartets (25 scheduled) caused the session to run late. Link this with drive time back to the hotel and it wouldn’t have happened till well after 11:00 PM. Also, pushing the start of the Quartet Finals back to 10:30 AM meant that the “Sing With A Champ” session had to be cancelled. The powers that be, in their wisdom, awarded the QCA Music Man Award to Jim Moses, Director of the three-

time International Champion Pekin Chapter and the A.B.E. (Award for Barbershop Excellence) to Terry Ludwig, Director of the Bloomington Sound of Illinois Chorus. Terry is also involved in YIH Festivals and coaching quartets. Terry sang tenor in the 2012 Illi-nois District Quartet Champion Waldorf Hair Compa-ny.

A baritone, lead and a bass singer were walking along the beach when they saw a bottle sticking out of the sand. All three grabbed it at once and a genie came out of the bottle and said, “Because of your mutual participation, I will grant each of you one wish,.. what would you like to have?” The lead singer said he wanted lead singers all over the world to live in mutual peace and harmony. “Your wish is granted,” said the genie. The bass singer indicated he wanted bass singers all over the world to come together and have a mass chorus of only bass music. “Your wish is granted," said the genie. “What would you like to have," the genie asked of the bari-tone. “I’ll take a Bud Lite,” he replied. Seen in The Voice of Rushmore, June, 2015, John Elving, Bulletin Editor for the Mt. Rushmore Chapter

In various places in this issue you will find ARAPROSDOKI-ANS, figures of speech in which the latter part of a sen-tence is unexpected such as:

Where there's a will, I want to be in it.

The Baritone, Lead and Bass IDAH To Be Free for 2016! Participants will not need to pay to participate in the 2016 Illinois District Academy of Harmony to be held in East Peoria April 15-17. The annual school, coinciding with the Illinois Spring Convention will be underwritten by a substantial grant from IDEA (Illinois District Endowment Assurance) fund. The fund will pick up the costs for all coaches, music, classrooms, etc. at the event. The tenta-tive lineup of events includes chorus and quartet coaching, a Harmony Brigade, Youth choruses, Sweet Adelines (Melodeers), and a spectacular Spring Harmony Jamboree on Saturday at Five Points in Washington, Ill featuring the popular Boardwalk quartet and Queens of Harmony The Four Bettys. As in the past, classes for all barbershoppers would in-clude: Vocal Production, tag singing, and the History of Barbershop. The headquarters hotel for the event is the East Peoria Holiday Inn and Suites, recently voted the #1 Holiday Inn in the nation and has received glowing reviews. More details are yet to emerge but you can rest assured that IDAH chairmen Terry Ludwig and Tim Pashon will pro-vide the best .

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Over the past three months Will-Cook has entertained at number of places including churches and retirement homes; we also has some fun at picnics (thanks, Bill and Lori) and lake outings (thanks Ed and Joan). The photos below are courtesy of Frank Fabian and Barba-ra Cook.

June 20, 2015 Brookdale Senior Center

Love that barbershop! July 3, 2015 Waterford Estates

Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

July 15, 2015 Timbers of Shorewood

With the piano stylings of Rich Davidson

Sabrah and George Collar with Paul Cook

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August 9 & 16 , 2015 Various Churches

Breakfast

August 15, 2015 Picnic with Bill and Lori

I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure.

Volume 3, Number 5 October, 2015 Page 5

August 26, 2015 Windy City Thunderbolts

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it’s getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

August 22, 2015 Lake Outing With Ed Brusic

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Unless accompanied by a byline, all articles appearing in the Troubadour have been written by the Bulletin Editor. Opinions are not necessarily those of The Will-Cook Chapter or the Barbershop Harmony Society.

THE BOOK OF BARBER5HOP By Mike Milillo from Midlantics

At a recent Dundalk Chapter meeting, Program VP Mike Milillo decided to deliver the usual vocal pro-duction reminders to the chorus in a more memora-ble form. The result: This reading from the Book of Barbershop. Enjov!

Book of Barbershop, III:1-9 Today's scripture comes from the Book of Barber-shop, Chapter III, verses 1-9. A lefier from Pitch, Res-onance, and Vowels. 1. Yea, shouldst thou sing with vocal quality includ-ing support and matching vowels, for this shall please the audience and judges. 2. Take unto thyself the notion that this hobby is not thine unless thou committest to honing thy craft through practice and repetition. 3. Pitch and Resonance saith, go forth and create angelic tones by using the tools the associate disci-ples have provided, for even a blind man can hear if he heard this warm-up. 4. Let us remember to share vocal space with our brethren and sing with fervor and purpose, especial-ly when we sing quietly. 5. Takest with thee that lyrics are only lyrics until thou givest them life and bless thy listeners with a story set to music. 6. Our Director hath proclaimed we should sing us-ing warm air and support with pleasing diction and proper vowels. Why would we sing any other way? 7. Let us all sing tall and convey to our audience the message of our songs by singing the whole word, for it is difficult to understand lyrics that sound like we're trying to order a $5 meal from Burger King at the drive thru. 8. Lastly, own thy music. It is up to thee, and thee alone, to step forth and master the choreography and lyrics. Aid is available to all who need it, all thou hast to do is ask. 9. Glory be to all who actively listen and participate at chorus practice.

A Quartet From The Past

Vidmar Buick Quartet: (L-R) Roger Redding, bari; Dan Hicks, Tenor; Earl Meseth, bass; Bill Kerschbaum, lead.

This quartet, made up of Joliet Blackhawk mem-bers sang only one gig and that was for the anniver-sary (50th?) of long-time Joliet Buick dealer Vidmar Buick sometime in the 1980s. How about the white skimmers and red-striped vests? A lot of fun singing in the showroom and in the repair shop where chords rang like crazy.

October 9 Jay Benz 19 Bob Zinkel 20 Tom Weidenhofer 28 Ed Brusic November 17 Len Widner 21 Rich Beintum 29 Earl Meseth December 5 Bob Maluta 5 Frank Palko

A clear conscience is the sign of a bad memory.

Volume 3, Number 5 October, 2015 Page 7

Don’t be a turkey vulture!

Women will never be equal to men until

they can walk down the street with a

bald head and a beer gut, and still

think they look sexy.

Literal Answers to Rhetorical Questions

Would you like to swing on a star? Even supposing that I were to wish to do such a thing, it would be quite impossible. Swinging requires that the force of gravity be exerted in the direction opposite to the pivot of the pendulum, whereas if one were some-how to succeed in attaching a pendulum to even so small a star as a white dwarf the predominant pull of gravity toward the star would convert any such attempt into a rapid vertical plunge toward its surface and almost imedi- ate death by evaporation.

Who wrote the Book of Love? The earliest work that translates into English with that title was penned by the Sufi Sadiin the 13th century. Rene of Anjou, King of Naples 1435-1480, wrote and illu-trated his Book of Lovesome time after 1473 while living idly in Provence. Since then there have been over two dozen books published in English with that title. Probemotor via J. Schlesinger’s North Shore Harmo-

Try This Tag…. The tag below was first done by the Peerless Quartet in 1921.

Beware Of This Type Of Thinking