In a world awash with souped-up pop songs enhanced by synthesizers and other electronic devices, the melodies wafting from a basement practice room in Hinsdale are delightfully fresh.
No piano, guitar, amplifier or set of speakers is in sight. Here, the music is created by the human voice.
It’s the weekly rehearsal of the Western Lights Chorus, a Hinsdale-based Sweet Adelines group, which creates complex, a cappella harmonies for women’s voices.
The lack of musical accompaniment should not be taken, however, as a sign of simplicity. Simple is the last word one might use to describe the intricate, four-part arrangements.
Sweet Adelines is the female version of the barbershop quartet, an form of musical Americana that dates to Tin Pan Alley days, circa 1890 to 1920. It’s an old-fashioned art that combines soulful African-American musical techniques with traditional European hymn-singing. Its intimate harmonies still appeal.
Most of the women in the chorus are amateurs; many have never had a voice lesson. They are bound together by a love of singing. All that is needed, they note, is the ability to carry a tune.
The close harmonizing requires a great deal of concentration. And without musical accompaniment to help them stay in key, the singers need to practice diligently to learn how to sing their parts consistently.
But the singers say that the rewards are worth their efforts, that there is nothing like the adrenaline rush that comes when all the vocal parts join in a resonating chord–known in the barbershop world as one that “rings.”
“I enjoy singing but would not stand center stage alone in a spotlight and do it,” said Sue Brander, who as a girl had belonged to her school Glee Club.
Brander, 62, joined a Hinsdale Sweet Adelines chorus 35 years ago after she married a barbershop singer.
“He used to sing in a quartet with my brother, who brought this guy home–and several years later we were marching down the aisle,” said Brander, of Chicago’s Northwest Side.
“And then it was my turn,” said the mother of 11 children, who jokes that she joined the chorus because she needed some adult conversation.
“Initially, I joined because I needed a night out,” she said, adding, “We really love what we do.”
Being in the chorus also offers a sense of accomplishment and is a fun and fulfilling way to explore music and learn more about singing.
The Western Lights Chorus was formed earlier this year from the merger of the Hinsdale-based Park West Chorus and the Aurora-based Valley Lights Chorus. There are 50 members.
The Hinsdale group was looking for more members; the Aurora group needed a music director. Together, the two met both goals.
The group meets Thursday evenings for rehearsals in the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Hinsdale. Members come from a wide area of suburbs and Chicagoneighborhoods.
It’s such a friendly group that when a stranger walks in, she is immediately surrounded and asked her vocal range.
The chorus performs throughout the western suburbs year-round, attending a lot of private functions such as dinners and special events but also festivals and other public events. There are local and regional competitions for interested members.
Sweet Adelines International got its start in 1945 when a group of women who loved barbershop harmony organized a women’s chorus in Tulsa. In less than a year, 85 women had joined. By 1947, that group had blossomed into an international organization that today has about 29,000 members in 605 chapters around the world, including 18 in Illinois.
The men’s groups separate the voices into different sections–tenor, lead, baritone and bass–to reflect from high to low the musical ranges of the individual members. The women’s groups are similarly divided.
But unlike more traditional choruses that divide the women’s voices into soprano, alto, contralto and the like, barbershop women divide the harmony differently and describe it by using the men’s terms.
For example, in more traditional choruses or church choirs, the sopranos typically carry the melody. In barbershop, the lead singers carry the melody.
The tenors, which are more or less equivalent to sopranos in vocal range, carry the harmony that typically is sung above the lead.
The baritone parts cover a range similar to the lead, but the notes might be sung below or above the melody, depending on the arrangement.
Finally, the bass parts are all the low notes sung mostly below middle C down to E-flat.
“It really is a perfect harmony,” said Irene Kaufman, the chorus’ assistant director.
“We’re not just standing up there and singing. The songs have to be sung in certain ways. We learn breathing and how to say vowels and how to place words in your mouth. And we’re strict about synchronization.”
Kaufman was a member of the Valley Lights group and has been involved with Sweet Adelines for 18 years.
Choruses sing a variety of music, but all of it is arranged barbershop-style, in four-part harmonies. The songs range from oldies to contemporary pop.
The Western Lights Chorus likes songs that can fit different occasions.
One recent rainy night, the group was rehearsing for its annual November show and fundraiser. On the practice docket were a host of bluesy tunes–appropriate, given that the theme of the performance is “Shakin’ the Blues Away.”
The repertoire is eclectic, mixing familiar oldies and the offbeat, ranging from the standard “St. Louis Blues” to a wacky Peter, Paul and Mary tune called “I’m in Love with a Big Blue Frog.”
“This is a really fun thing,” said Sarah Fritsch, 15, of Aurora, the group’s youngest member. She sang with the Aurora chorus for three years. She’s also active in her church choir.
The chorus would love more teen and young adult members, president Bonnie Mucha said, noting that most of the women are in their 40s. Recruiting younger women can be difficult, she said, because it’s hard to compete with crowded high school schedules or demands of career and family.
Mucha, who has belonged to a Hinsdale Sweet Adelines chorus for 39 years, said that once you get involved you can’t give it up.
“It’s different than a lot of other musical groups,” she said. “There’s a lot of camaraderie, and when you get older, if your voice changes, there’s still a place for you.”
Mucha, 52, who lives in North Aurora, told a story about a woman who came with her daughter, who was interested in joining.
The mother said that she was too old to sing, that her voice was too low. In the end, the mother joined and the daughter did not.
“It was funny, she had no inkling that she would be doing this,” Mucha said. “And then when she moved out of state, she went to another chorus. And, in fact, you can go just about anywhere in the world and join a Sweet Adeline chorus.”
Members are as involved as they want to be, Mucha said. Some attend every performance; others can’t commit to every one.
“This does not get stale,” she said. “You somehow get really hooked, and once it’s in your blood it is hard to get it out.
“People can get a whole new life with this.”
For more information on the Western Lights Chorus, call Bonnie Mucha at 630-897-5303. To arrange a booking, call 630-469-4554.
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Sing, sing, sing
“Shakin’ the Blues Away,” The Western Lights Chorus’ annual concert, will be presented at 3 and 8 p.m. Nov. 18 in the Meyer Ballroom, North Island Center, 8 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora. Tickets are $18 for general admission and $16 for seniors and children up to 12 years old. For tickets and reservations, call 630-892-7792 or 708-246-5661.
