WHAT IS BARBERSHOP MUSIC?

Barbershop harmony is generally considered to be one of the few uniquely American-born musical styles, alongside jazz, with which it shares origins. The simplest definition of barbershop centers around:

• relatively simple melodies
• sung in four-part harmony
• without instruments (a cappella)
• the melody is usually sung in the second-highest voice part, which we call the lead. A high tenor (often a falsetto voice) sings simple harmonies above that melody. The lowest voice, the bass, sings the simpler low harmonies, and a baritone fills in the tricky stuff above and below the melody.

Distinctively, barbershop music is written with its greatest emphasis on chord structure (circle of 5th’s). Strong “barbershop” arrangements showcase full, four-part chords for every note, with a minimum of doubling on octaves. The signature “barbershop seventh” (1-3-5-7) chord appears frequently in barbershop arrangements, and in contest-suitable music, might constitute more of 30% of the chords in a song.  

OUR HISTORY

The Capital City Chorus was established in 1957 and has been an Ontario District Champion five times.  We have also represented our district at the international level in 1986 and 2008.   We compete annually.

OUR PURPOSE

The Capital City Chorus is to be an ever-growing fellowship of barbershop singers, dedicated to the cause of promoting close harmony, vocal music in our educational systems in our community. 

To share in community involvement with fund raising and participation in the Harmonize for Speech Fund (support of speech-language pathology and audiology services in Ontario), Sing Canada Harmony (promotion and encouragement of singing in youth) as well as the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa (our chorus providing labour for a weekend a year at Camp Smitty).