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The African-American Quartet Tradition in Hampton Roads
On a summer evening in the 1930s, somewhere in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, an audience of African Americans fills the pews of a neighborhood church. The pastor steps forward to make announcements and to thank the listeners for the twenty-five-cent admission they have paid at the door. The men, women, and children bow their heads in prayer, then the stars of the show-four men, dressed in identical dark suits-line up in front of the rostrum. Neither guitar nor microphone is in sight, and the men stand steady as they sing their first number, "Hello, Everybody, How Do You Do?" The tight harmonies fill the sanctuary as the quartet moves through "Sleep On, Mother" .. Rock My Soul," "Peace in the Valley," and other sacred favorites. Wrapped in the music, the singers and audience alike share a role in a Tidewater tradition that was helping shape the nation's musical character and was destined to affect pop, gospel, and even bluegrass music decades later.
The tradition of a cappella, African-American quartets in Virginia thrived from the 1880s through the 1940s, but black men were singing in quartets before the Civil War. The tradition was founded on the model of four men singing religious songs in a lead-tenor-baritone-bass harmony arrangement without instrumental accompaniment. Vocalists from Hampton Roads entertained listeners nationwide by way of personal appearances, recordings, and radio, and their artistic blending of folkways and popular culture revealed as much about Virginia culture and history as it did about the music itself.
Most of the commonwealth's African-American quartets sang only to church-oriented audiences and maintained repertoires entrenched in the hymns and spirituals of folk culture. Others, however, took to vaudeville and radio, adding a stock of blues, pop, and minstrel numbers to their gospel repertoires. At least two groups promoted the names of academic institutions under classically trained directors. Each quartet, regardless of its nature, was aware of the musical trends and innovations around it, as were many of the listeners. The audience's regular presence-or absence-was a measure of approval of the quartet's offering; thus, the entire community shaped the harmonizing tradition.
Hampton Roads provided maritime, military, and agricultural jobs to the founders of the area harmony tradition-antebellum...