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Barbershop Harmony Society




A parallel women's singing organization, Sweet Adelines International , was founded in 1945 . A second women's barbershop-harmony organization, Harmony Incorporated , was formed in 1959 , as the result of a dispute over SAI's membership policy, which at the time limited membership to whites. (This exclusion has long since been dropped). Several international affiliate organizations, in countries from Scandinavia to Japan, add their own flavor to the signature sound of barbershop harmony.

The original initialism was a lampoon on the New Deal Alphabet Agencies , which Cash detested. For decades, SPEBSQSA was ''the'' official name, while the ''Barbershop Harmony Society'' was an officially recognized and sanctioned alternative name. There was even encouragement to use the alternate name, because it was often felt that the official name was a sort of in-joke that did not resonate outside the Society. In mid- 2004 , faced with declining membership, the Society adopted a marketing plan that calls for using "Barbershop Harmony Society" consistently and retaining the old name for certain legal purposes.

The old official name of the organization spelled "barber shop" as two words, whereas ''barbershop'' is generally used elsewhere.

Unofficially, SPEBSQSA is pronounced /'spEb skw@/ in Kirshenbaum (that is, as if the third ''S'' were a ''U''). (Officially, the Society has said "attempts to pronounce the name are discouraged".)

The society can be contacted via their website, listed below, or by telephoning (800) 876-SING.


DISTRICTS OF BHS




COMPETITIONS


To promote barbarshop singing, the organization runs annual compeititions for barbershop Choruses and Quartets .


EXTERNAL LINK