There is a 1936 classic by Norman Rockwell, legendary illustrator of American life, of four men hitting the perfect note. A portrait of a barber shop in the 1890s, it has the men holding a razor, comb, shaving brush and mug, eyes closed, singing in harmony, even as one has his face covered in foam. The painting that first graced The Saturday Evening Post has been immortalised as a mural at the Barbershop Harmony Society in Nashville, USA.
Halfway around the globe, a century later, four men in their thirties gather on the steps of St Andrew’s Kirk in Chennai. The church steeple lances a grey sky, and a sudden sharp downpour sends them dashing into its magnificent interiors. Under the swirling cosmos painted on the dome, Joseph P George, Ashish Ittyerah, Roshan Santosham and Alfred Pramod break into song — blending voices so well that they weave in and out of each other’s vocal orbits before ending in a triumphant ‘tag’, a dramatic variation.
Joseph, who sings lead, is an engineer; Ashish, a journalist, sings tenor; Roshan, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor, sings baritone; and Pramod, an airline business development manager, sings bass. They first sang in college and church choirs and continue to be associated with them, but came together as Organised Chaos, a rock band founded a decade ago. It exchanged its blood-curdling snarls for the relative, soothing harmony of barbershop music, making it perhaps India’s first quartet to follow this unique style of acapella singing.
Characterised by a four-part chord for every melody note, the genre had its origins in Europe, where patrons sang while waiting at saloons for barbers, who were then also dental practitioners. Singing in quartets was popularised in the US during the Vaudeville era of the early 1900s. It led to the founding of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS), now headquartered at Nashville, in 1938. Considered the largest all-male singing organisation with 30,000 members across continents (women have been allowed to join since last year), it has a formidable collection of sheet music, costumes and memorabilia. It also hosts workshops to hone skills, and Organised Chaos was the first quartet from India to be part of one.
“We were all part of the Madras Musical Association, led by Augustine Paul. It was Roshan who initiated Organised Chaos, inspired by his father’s Gatt Quintet. We sang church music by day, rock by night, hence the name. But the band petered out because I moved to Bangalore, Roshan moved to Pondy and Pramod got married,” laughs Joseph, the conductor. “In January 2018, Roshan got us together again and Ashish joined us. By March, I nudged Organised Chaos into singing barbershop harmony.”
While Ashish and Joseph had passed Grade 8 in western classical vocal and piano respectively, and Pramod was an accomplished guitarist, Roshan says that moving to a form of singing that requires no instrumental accompaniment was a whole new world. “We meet once a week for an hour for practice,” he says, “But with our hectic schedules and distant workplaces, it’s an effort.”
Which is why it is remarkable that a little more than a year since their experiments with barbershop music, they were invited on full scholarship by BHS for a week-long workshop at Harmony University. “The whole of 2018 had us unlearning the way we sing, to fit in together,” says Pramod. “I had to lose my classical vibrato,” adds Ashish. The quartet recorded two songs — ‘Irish Blessing’ and ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ — that were tagged to the BHS Facebook page. “Our avenues to perform also were church- and carol-related events. So, our being ‘found’ by BHS was a miracle,” says Roshan.
The programme, held in Nashville since the 1970s, was a revelation, and went beyond the mere tropes of harmonising popular tunes and how to ‘lock and ring’ and ‘tag’. With no stars and no beat-boxing, there were lessons in how to create the perfect blend, with no one voice dominating. “There were 21 quartets and two choruses from around the globe, and you get to choose whether you want to head to the quartet, chorus, educator or director’s college. Mornings began with nearly 600 people singing together before heading out for different electives, such as rehearsal techniques, sight reading, music branding and how to be a great baritone,” says Roshan.
“Everything is looked at with a magnifying glass,” says Joseph, “Your individual voice, group sound, how to let go of your inhibitions...”
Competitions mark the end of the workshop and follow guidelines such as every song must end in a ‘tag’ — a hallmark of barbershop. For the finale, the bandhgala -clad Organised Chaos sang the spiritual ‘It is well with my soul’, although barbershop repertoire includes show classics, jazz standards and pop tunes.
Their greatest joy came from gathering in the open to singing tags with barbershop legends such as The Gashouse Gang, and other 16-to-60-year-old-men in bowler hats, followed by giant bowls of ice cream, a tradition here.
“We hope to start an association in Chennai,” says Roshan. “Include more of secular music and develop a culture where barbershop music finds its place in the already-rich Indian music scene,” adds Ashish.
They sign off with ‘Thank you Lord for the music’. When it ends with Pramod’s deep bass echoing through the chancel, I could not have agreed more.
