About Calliope

 

Calliope sings traditional barbershop four-part harmony but adds novelty to its musical repertoire and warmth to its entertainment style. Along with songs such as its “Calliope” theme song, this barbershop quartet adds entertainment value to its programs by incorporating humor and variety in its performances. Primarily a vocal quartet, ‘Entertainment’ is its principal product. Although it is not a comedy quartet, some of its material is funny and provides audiences with laughs as well as nostalgia and pleasant music.

 

Singing is the fundamental element in its performances but “intimate” music and entertainment are the products. For younger Americans, this uniquely American Art Form provides a brand new experience when four voices blend into one but the sound is expanded by overtones so that more than four musical notes are heard for those who can hear the upper harmonics. When barbershop is sung in small and “live” (resonant) rooms, the overtones can be clearly heard - especially by children who can usually hear higher frequencies than adults. Children listening to the quartet can hear five and sometimes six singers and seem baffled when they can clearly see only four. No other musical instruments come close to matching the precise tuning of human voices singing barbershop harmony.

 

The structure of the harmonization in barbershop quartets is unusual because the melody is not found in the uppermost voice like traditional and instrumental music. The melody is sung by the “lead” and the “tenor” harmonizes above him. The “bass” singer adds the pillars of the chords (called “roots”) and the “baritone” fills in the remaining note in a preponderance of four note chords. Traditionally, contemporary music uses mostly three note cords so songs from the period from 1890 to 1920 best exemplify the sound of barbershop harmony.

 

Because Calliope has been entertaining audiences for more than 15 years, the quartet has performed for hundreds of audiences from small parties to thousands of sports fans. As many as 250,000 people have heard the quartet perform including the National Anthem in Orioles Park at Camden Yards seven times, plus O Canada twice and has been televised as a result. The quartet has a standing invitation to sing both Anthems at Orioles games when the Toronto Blue Jays are visiting.

 

The all male quartet has performed for many groups, some multiple times, at The Baltimore Streetcar Museum, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Industry, the National Aquarium, nursing homes etc. It has demonstrated Barbershop Quartet Harmony at least 20 times at Baltimore elementary, middle and high schools. Calliope has delivered singing telegrams to more than 100 lucky sweethearts over nearly 10 years and has performed at numerous anniversaries, birthdays and parties of all kinds held in meeting halls, back yards, museums, fair grounds and fire halls. Its photos have appeared about a dozen times in community newspapers.

 

Calliope regularly performs on the restored WWII Liberty Ship, the John W. Brown, which usually makes 4 day long cruises down the Chesapeake Bay every year. The quartet is a regular part of the entertainment package of performers on the “Living History Cruises” that includes Franklin Delano Roosevelt, General Douglas McArthur, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, a big band and antique WWII vintage airplanes that “attack” the ship until driven off by friendly, antique Mustang airplanes. The ship is truly a living museum.

 

Calliope would love to perform for you and your group.

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