Masters of Harmony

Masters of Harmony Stars Brighten Louisville Night

Gotcha! wins Gold, Westminster takes ninth

Kirt Thiesmeyer, Jul 4, 2004

Wasn’t that a time! History was made, an era passed, records were shattered. I’m talking about Operations VP Bruce Oldham relaxing and enjoying himself without having to worry about every little detail.

O.C. Times and the Westminster Chorus rock! Gotcha! rules! I was there. What more need be said? Here are the highlights from Ground Zero, as it were:

• We may now officially call ourselves the Barbershop Harmony Society without guilt (or having to use mnemonic devices to remember "spebsqsa"). No surprises there.
  
  
• Louisville was crawling with active members of the Masters of Harmony, twenty-one in number that I saw, come to cheer seven quartets from the Far Western District (including 15 other MOHers) and one fabulous group of young singers from Westminster. Plus we had Mark Hale among the Music judges, all of Nightlife and Revival, John Miller, and special reunions with Emeritus members Dan Fullerton and Rob Ransom, and former members Roger Motzkus and Don Russell. We were well represented. And there was Jackie Palmquist, naturally, doing her loyal and devoted best with Jean Edwards, Vicki Oldham, Dolores Van Winkle and other Sweethearts to make up and shape up our younger representatives for the wonders of their first international competition.
  
  
• I am just exactly old enough to have attended every SPEBSQSA convention since founding. But I didn’t, and the truth is that the non-performing year is a wonderful way to see what truly goes on, visit rehearsals and wish good luck to our rivals, have leisurely meals, attend classes, handicap the probable medalists, wallow in our biases, and enjoy the nail-biting, fanny-fatiguing, mind-agonizing wait for results with everyone else.
  
  
• Competition songs included "I Can Dream, Can’t I," "Fit As A Fiddle," "Make ‘Em Laugh," "Song Of The South," "Melancholy Baby," "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and "Swingin’ On A Star"! In the judges’ pit, Mark Hale must have been wincing over the selection of songs from the MOH repertoire. Barberpole Cat songs were prominent: "Nellie" and "Mill Stream" as Gotcha!’s final set received a higher score than any other quartet piece in the entire week (except their own the night before). "You Tell Me Your Dream" and "Honey-Little ‘Lize" were also sung to great effect.
  
  
• The convention was filled with poignant moments, chief among them Jim Henry’s tributes to his brother Rob at the Association of International Champions show, as The Gas House Gang formally retired, and then again when the Ambassadors of Harmony won the chorus competition. Revival, The Ritz, and Michigan Jake also retired, and Mark Hale’s emotional farewell from the stage was well matched by tears in the audience and a lengthy standing ovation. We heard the last Jake performance forever, and swarmed their booth at Harmony Marketplace for autographed CDs.
  
  
• You’d have been so proud of our boys from the Westminster Chorus, with an average age of 19.5 years, representing the Far Western District with such spirit and sound (sometimes way past curfew). They got first class coaching from Nightlife, Revival and Michigan Jake that I saw. They were the screaming darlings of the audience, and the energy projected from the stage by those 29 dynamos was palpable. To come from a flukey disqualification in 2002 to the top ten in international competition in 2004 (actually 9th) was an amazing achievement.
  
  
• Perennial favorite Metropolis fought hard every round, captured 99.9% of the audience with their inspired zaniness and finished in the medals for the third time. O.C. Times, a wild card entry seeded 49th on the basis of their District score, vaulted over 31 other fiercely striving, struggling, scratching, biting, wonderful quartets to finish 18th overall -- a stunning come-from-behind.
  
  
• Gotcha! not only won the quartet competition in every category on every song, they actually out-sang silver medalist Max Q by 44 points on "If I Had My Way," which they had each recorded and each used to open the quarter-final round. Gotcha! was in fact so superior (the judges and I had ‘em first in every round), they must have come to town determined to let out all the stops. Talk about locking every chord -- they were ringing grace notes!
  
  
• The New Tradition chorus from Northbrook, Ill., defending their 2001 gold medal, put on a colorful package ("Camptown Races" and "My Old Kentucky Home") and did it very well -- leading MOHers to suspect they stole the formula from our Portland playbook -- yet they finished in a tie for third place! Winning in every category, the Ambassadors of Harmony dominated the afternoon with a record 160 men on the risers, garnering 54 points more than Toronto’s repeating silver medalists Northern Lights and a score of 92.7%.
  
  
• Mark Hale was all over the place, judging, performing, presenting, promoting, starring, and we know he arranges, directs and coaches in his "spare time." And he’s ours. We will need to focus on this in the coming months. Mark cannot win the 2005 international chorus championship by himself but, with him, we can. "All it takes is all you've got --- all the time."