If you read this devotional quick enough, you’ll have plenty of time to hop in your car and make the 181-mile drive to Euclid, Ohio. Why, you ask? Euclid High School is hosting the Cardinal and Johnny Appleseed Districts Quartet Prelims and Joint Convention of barbershop quartets. And since this is National Barbershop Quartet Day, it sounds like a fun thing to do.
Barbershop quartets feature a style of a cappella music that is complex. Around 1900, this style of music was created and found favor for about 20 years before falling out of favor for other styles of the era. In 1938, the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America was founded, bringing back to life the barbershop sound. Today, concerts and competitions can be found all over the United States.
Besides being a cappella, barbershop music is set apart by some unique elements. Traditionally, the quartets were all men, however, women have now been included in the quartets or have formed their own groups. The music features the melody in the middle of the four parts, the dominant seventh chord, bending of notes, overtones, singing around the Circle of Fifths, unexpected modulations, and progressions. Add to that some comedy and you have an event that will hook you, making you a follower of classic barbershop quartets.
While researching this devotional, I watched some hilarious quartet performances. The group Lunch Break sang Old MacDonald Had A Deformed Farm where they featured animals like a tone-deaf humming bird, a multiple personality disordered goat, and a hyperactive sloth. And The New Fangled Four sang about the Bananaphone, a parody about the latest and greatest invention. Honestly, the songs are so dumb, they’re funny!!!
Aren’t you glad that God made music? The first mention of instrumental music is found in Genesis 4:21 when it says, “And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.” A reference to vocal music makes its debut in Genesis 31:27 where Laban complains, “Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp?”
Music is a tool and has been used for expressing praise and thanks to God for victory, announcing coronations and events in the royal courts, worship, feasts, and even to express sadness. The Psalms is a musical book. All 150 chapters would have been set to music. And the New Testament holds many references to music and encouragements to the believer to lift their voices in song.
Ephesians 5:19 says, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” A similar admonition is found in Colossians 3:16. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
As we gather in church in a few days, it’s a great opportunity to lift our voices collectively to the Lord. Singing is a part of worship and though you may never be able to harmonize with a barbershop quartet or even sing a solo that would be pleasing in a crowd of one, you can please the Lord with your song because He is listening to the pitch and harmony of the heart. When the heart pleases the Lord, the song emanating from the heart brings Him joy as well.
James 5:13, “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.”
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
