The Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-10-10, Page 15leisure, features an
Serving over 24,000 homes in Listowel, Winghafn,
Mount Forest, Milverton, Ariss, Arthur, Drayton,
Harrisi?on, Moorefield, Palmerston, Bloomingdale,
Breslau, Conestogo, Elmira, Heidelberg, Linwood,
Maryhill, St. Clements, St. Jacobs, Wallenstein,.
Wellesley and West Montrose.
Wednesday, October 10, 1984
Sweet Adelines e ture barbersh
p style
SWEET ADELINES—The Tavistock -Woodstock -Stratford chapter of'the
Sweet. Adelines is popular in this area for its barber -shop style of singing.
Members in this chapter come from all over Southern Ontario, including
er interest in music, specifically •
singing, prompted her to join the group.
The . chorus regularly enters the
regional competition held, in Kit-
chener's Centre in the Square in May.
The Border Lake, Region Two competi-
tion encompasses choruses from as far
south as Michigan, and north to Owen •
Sound.
The T.W.S. chapter is considered a
small chorus with its 21 members,
while some groups range up to 75 and
The Tavistock=Woodatock-St a tford
(T.WS.) chapter of the Sweet Acidities
is gearing up for another season after
its summer break.
The approximately 21 -member all=
female chorus is popular for its barber-
shop style of harmony, and performs at
•several annual events. as well as at-
tending local functions.
Lois Galbraith, membership com-
mittee chairman and chapter historian,
has been with the'group forthree years.
Milverton, Stratford, Tavistock, Woodstock, Thamesford, Embro, Mitchell
and surrounding areas. London, Listowel and Kitchener also have individual
chapters.
100 members. ' -
Mrs. Galbraith's job as membership
chairman is to stimulate interest and
recruit new members, as well as in-
troduce new members to the chorus:
Ther group practises every Wed-
nesday from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30. A new
line of songs is selected for each season,
and whi$e most of the songs are new, old
favorites are often selected again and
again.
The group also has different
•
ackages;tf songs.�theyselect for.,dif-
ferent occasions, such as a religious
package for church functions.
Sweet Adelines, Inc., began years ago
when a group of women in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, organized the first chapter
in July, 1945. In October, 1947, this
group invited all women interested in
singing barbershop harmony from all
parts of the nation to come to Tulsa for
a quartet ,contest and to set up an
organization of national scope. The
group received an overwhelming
response, and today the internaional
membership numbers over 33,000,
encompassing North America from
Alaska to the Republic of Panama,
from the east to west coast, and ex-
tending overseas to England, the
Netherlands, Sweden and Japan.
The T.W.S. chapter was chartered in
June, 1957. The idea was born at the
Woodstock Collegiate Institude where a
group of enthusiastic students started
to harmonize and were later
augmented by other women interested
in singing barbershop harmony.
The music is produced by four voices,
unaccompanied, called lead. tenor,
baritone and bass. Lead, or melody, is
sung for the most part in the range
between A below middle C and the C
above middle C.
Tenor is a harmony part which is
sung consistently above the lead.
Although tenor is the highest voice in
barbershop harmony, it should not be
confused with the soprano of con-
ventional singing groups. The tenor
should be a light, sweet, pure tone
which will complement but not over-
power the lead voice.
Bass singers should have a rich,
mellow quality and be able to sing E
flat below middle C easily. The bass
should not be confused with the alto of
conventional groups. ,
Baritone is approximately the• same
range as the lead, with the harmony
part crossing the lead notes, sometimes
singing under the lead and sometimes
above.
The group functions like any in-
ternational, non-profit erganization,
governed by a board of directors
elected annually by the membership.
Its purpose in general is to educate its
members in the art of singing four-part
harmony, barbershop style, without
instrumental accompaniment.
Committees are set up within the
group, such as the two Mrs. Galbraith
chairs. Within the.: group there is a
president, secretary, treasurer, ways
and means, and a chorus manager who .'
looks after arranging the various •
functions the chorus attends.
The non-profit group covers most of
its costs through membersdp fees. An
annual show at Stratford City Hall also
raises .funds to help with yearly ex-
penses.
The organization concentrates on
educating its members in as many
ways as possible. Every summer a
music school at Western University is
held, and everyone involved with the
region is allowed to attend, which could
involve up to 1,500 people. Listening
skills, sight singing and managing time
are just some of the topics discussed
during the workshop.
•
A music workshop was recently held
in Zion Lutheran Church, Erie Street,
Stratfford,.on Oct. 1, which concentrated
on vocal harmony. This was open to the,
public.
Along with learning how to sing, some
choreography is also involved. Mrs.
Galbraith said four girls from the group
are going to a choreography workshop
which will aid them in teaching the
chorus the tricks of uniformed
movement, which is very important to
the group's performance.
"It's not all that difficult with
practise," Mrs. Galbraith said. "It's a'
lot easier to learn it when you're
singing. It works in with'the music."
Along with a varied repertoire, the
girls also have a good choice of
costumes for every occasion. These
vary from western uniforms, long
dresses, pant suits, wrap-around skits,
and old-fashioned bathing suit outfits.
"Whatever style of music we're
singing, we try to fit the wardrobe to
it," Mrs. Galbraith explained.
The girls do some of their own
sewing, and a wardrobe chairman
oversees the costumes.
When the Sweet Adelines are not
attending competitions, they perform
at other events and occasionally take
part in fund-raising activities.
"We donate to another organization
that's needy — last year it was the Big
. Sisters in Stratford," Mrs. Galbraith
said.
They sang to help raise money for•Old
St. Paul's Church in Woodstock, which
needed money for its building fund.
'They provide entertainment' at
several Christmas banquets, and sang
for the anniversary at St. Paul's United
Church in Milverton last year.'
Anyone 16 years 'of age or over is
welcome, to try out for the group.
MemberSkcome from all over Southern
Ontario, including Milverton, Stratford,
Tavistock, Woodstock, .Thamesford,
Embro, Mitchell and surrounding rural
areas.
In addition to Mrs, Galbraith, Betty
Brubacher and Mary 'Gascho are
Milverton members.
The group will sing at althost any
occasion, and asks to be booked early.
This makes it easier for them to
-prepare a package of songs, and to
make travel arrangements to the event.
Some of the old familiar songs the
group sings include Shenandoah,
Grandma's Feather Bed, Buttons and
Bows, Dear Hearts and Gentle People,
Oklahoma, and Doin' What Comes
Naturally. - •
• Mrs. Galbraith said potential
members are welcome to attend a
practice as guests to see if they would
like to join.
STRATFORD'S STANLEY—Chi-
cago ailurWilliam Iski inPthersstr�ford
lays
Stanley Kowalski
roduction of. Tennessee
Festival's P"A Streetcar Named •
Williams' la ing at the Avon vi
Desire" now 'P y is
Theatre. (Photo by. David Cooper) A ��
tree
Stratford
.
well worth waiting for
Laurel, Miss., her sister, Stella, and
owaland
by Marion I. Duke Stella's husband Stanley buddy of Stanley,
poker -playing Any production of ``.A Streetcar a P Blanche has
d to leave both Harold nowtn to her sister,
e is boon a been fired from
c
harsh realities facing her, but of having
her face revealed in the harshness of
direct lighi g• Conolly's per-
formance
weakness in i
is a lacak os fsexuality.
ex sa ity. Sheed is
not a "tiger' just too refined to be
Named Desir " n out as come to visit. Having
e Stanley. She
position for having im a sex -pot. actor,
actors and audience as wrung ear -old imagined as b the young Chicago
dishrag• erred or. Broadway in her teaching P As Stanley, volatile, and
e
Since it first op of a play by moral relations \a -woman a the end William lL.e Petersen is
1948, this masterpiece been doing a student, Blanche ism' job, she has lost totally believable, if a trifle. immature.
Williams has of the line. Besides her
Reve, has a its food, throws dishes and slaps
Tennessee ih�'h'es' the family estate, BelleHe spits to qmore uestion
than packing Wand to drinking problem and . has
trouble
Blanche is his pregnant wife in dishes
outbursts tion, un -
It has forced men womenin h a single day •controllable anger and frustration. their relative' positions etting t through be almost the pregnant Stella,
questionto examine their moral g out so fine as to As P t up-and-coming Ms.
societythe elemental male strung out
She ' is also a woman of Dunsmore (the Pd ella, telephone
values. and setssensibilities coupled with a Griswald in the long
commercials) is a tower of strength.
against a female that embodiehethesults refined sexual appetite. troubled prettier, but
of femininity. et one cannot hefty
this intelligent, Her Stella could have been
passionate,
and the worst e , to pi y y against the loutish, more loving,
are utterly predictable,
outcome — woman comes up g hardly
fail is be moved by all hell breaks loose. In forgiving or remorseful. The fact that
toto pity and to sorrow. have completely
moved to anger, loses Dunsmore and Co remorseful.
accents isn't a
It is fitting that the Stratford Festival brutal Stave Y' and in so doing southern
it Streetcar Named the end, Blanche cannot hold out. She this Canadian staging, but
has chosen production a a, gives in to Stanleydifferent in to Americans
as its first ever p ointment the weak grip she holds on sanity. rove unsettling
Desire It is a disappointment On the surface; in Streetcar Named problem work• mass of raw sex could p
Williams throughout not only viewing the play.
oers Desire" is a seething As Mitch, the decent man who atffeels
a d neigh however, the
to theatre -goers boring
but Canadainhumanity to man. a and
Ontario, states that t1�e PT°duction, and torment• Underneath, as falls f or Bl her 1�e5 Carlson's per
-
d
the Festival's artistic play is about man's relentlesshum betrayed by faulted. Many
s finally
wears
staged by will have a it is Stanley's
which finally formance cannot °remember Mr •
John Hirsch, much as anything
end as she leaves adians
the CBC's
e.
director „ opened
.,.nited run at the
Desire
• Stratford
Blanche down. In a Can
s depended Carlson's appearance in
in the company " of a doctor and nurse, which won him an ACTRA
"A StreetcargSept, 7 and will r she remarks, n have strangers." It is "Baku Fire"orinhiActor.,
i�'t1dAy production,
upon the kindness of strang Award as Best huPP
through
great, i very, • roduction, if not quite Finally, it must or said for. Kowalski
pt p ood this cry from the heartfthatnechoes
This very g e of Stanley Funicello's set design nder of functional
is very, as an American after the imag looks apartment is a this
Now accepted w •As Blanche, Patricia Conolly moodiness. Like Blanche,s But it
ftalph
.A Streetcar Named Desire" is fades. part. She is the meet has seen better day
classic, apart -
working class quarter of Ne•• right for the fading of a past glory.
setFields.
in a street named Elysian absolutely g the ng, the retains something
a sc characters are embodiment beauty,
scared to to death of snot only
Orleans, on principal beauty,
Fields• its Bois a schoolteacher from
Blanche D