Harmony
for hire

By Ruth Rovner
For the Times

This Valentine’s Day, sweethearts will surely receive flowers, chocolates and heart-shaped objects of all sorts.But some will get a much more unusual gift.
Taken by surprise wherever they are, they’ll be serenaded by a barbershop quartet. Four men dressed in spiffy red and white vests and red bow ties will sing romantic songs in four-part harmony. They’ll also present the recipient with a card and a rose from the gift-giver.
The singers are members of the Sounds of Liberty, which is the Philadelphia chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. And their "Singing Valentine" quartets are a popular tradition.
"It’s our favorite event of the year," says the Rev. Albert Smith, who is president of Sounds of Liberty.
To handle all the requests that pour in, the chorus members will form six quartets. Their singing is actually a three-day event — from Feb 13 to 15. Each day, they’ll start at 10 a.m. and will be busy all day. Among the favorite romantic songs they’ll sing are Let Me Call You Sweetheart and Heart of my Hearts.
The places where they’ve sung cover the gamut. They’ve entered offices and burst into romantic songs. They’ve been a hit in posh restaurants where they’ve sung at a patron’s table while others applauded.
They’ve surprised people in their homes throughout the area. Last year, they even livened up a college math class at the University of Pennsylvania by singing to the female professor.
The request was made by her husband, who asked if the singers would go right to her classroom. So they drove to the Penn campus, but couldn’t find a parking space. When the security guard was told of their purpose, he mellowed and let them park in a staff-only spot.
"We found our way to the classroom and knocked gently at the door," Smith says.
"I know we’re interrupting something important," Smith told the puzzled professor, "but first things first" — and they presented her with a card and a rose and then started to sing.
She was surprised and touched.
"She got quite teary-eyed," Smith recalls. As for the students, "they were really captured by the harmonious sound."
Sometimes it’s family members, rather than a spouse or sweetheart, who orders the singing valentine. Last year, a daughter requested a singing valentine for her father, who was seriously ill. Seated in his wheelchair, with his daughter next to him, he listened with delight as the quartet sang to him. The daughter later told them her father was always a music lover.
The singing made such an impression that five months later, Smith got another request from the daughter. By now, her father was terminally ill and hospitalized. And he was becoming depressed.
"His daughter asked him, ‘What would make you happy?’ And he said, ‘I’d like to have those fellows come back to sing to me.’"
Quickly, his quartet rearranged their schedules so that the next day, they could sing to the patient in his hospital room at Holy Redeemer. "He was so pleased," says Smith. "And we were very touched."
Other experiences have been humorous or just plain fun. Whatever the situation, the singers enjoy singing directly to one person.
"We’re standing so close to the person that it leads to a very personal connection," says Smith.
The typical presentation is two songs.
"After we sing the first song, and we see how pleased the person is, it helps us to emote even more," says Smith.
Indeed, they sing from the heart — and they never sing off key. Auditions are required for the Sounds of Liberty chorus, which is open only to males because that’s the nature of the music. (A comparable group, the Sweet Adelines, is for female singers.)
Currently, there are 30 members of Sounds of Liberty, and they rehearse in Northeast Philadelphia every Tuesday evening from 7:30 to 10, led by their music director Lori Ludlum.
The Valentine’s Day event is not their only singing activity. They also give two concerts each year — a holiday concert and a spring concert — and they’ve sung in other venues.
For instance, for the past two years, they’ve sung the national anthem at Citizens Bank Park, and they often sing at nursing homes and retirement homes and participate in parades.
Over the years they’ve acquired a repertoire of more than 50 songs, but they currently focus on about 20, says Smith. These include Bye Bye Blues; Who’s Sorry Now; Come to the Cabaret; All Alone; and Love Letters.
Smith has been a loyal member of Sounds of Liberty for 16 years, serving as president for the past five. His love of vocal music goes way back to childhood. Growing up in North Philadelphia, he was only 4 when he started singing along to music he heard on TV programs.
When he was older, he became an avid fan of the Mills Brothers.
"They were a trio who sang in barbershop style. It was a soft, close harmony," he says.
Although they were a trio, their style was very similar to a barbershop quartet.
"It’s close harmony with little solo voice," he says. "Instead, all four voices are singing, often with an echo effect. And it’s sung a cappella, which means without any instrumentation."
Smith, a baritone, had his first chance to sing barbershop style as a seminarian at the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. He was chosen for the seminary’s choir, but he also joined a quartet formed by another seminarian.
"It was my first introduction to that type of music, and I loved it!" he says.
The singing seminarian was ordained in 1965 as a member of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, an affiliation he still holds. Since his ordination, he’s held varied positions, and music has been a constant. As a teacher at a high school in Alexandria and then at Father Judge High School in the Northeast, he organized student groups of singers.
Then, when he was working in Wilmington as a vocation director for the Oblates of St Francis, he sang for three years with the Barbershop Chorus of the Brandywine.
Smith later joined the Sounds of Liberty chorus when he came to Philadelphia to serve as campus minister at Holy Family College, where he stayed for 18 years. Now he’s at the Center for Human Integration, headquartered in Fox Chase and sponsored by the Medical Mission Sisters.
During all these years, he’s been active in the Sounds of Liberty chorus. And as Valentine’s Day approaches, he and all the quartet singers are polishing up their repertoire of romantic songs. It’s a tradition that Smith eagerly looks forward to each year.
"It’s more than just vocalizing," he says. "We’re sending a musical message of love from someone who wants his loved one to hear it. It leaves us with a lasting impression of bringing happiness to others." ••
For information on Sounds of Liberty, visit www.soundsofliberty.org on the Internet.
To order a Singing Valentine, call 215-636-9012 or send an e-mail to SoundsOfLiberty@hotmail.com