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Barbershop music, with its close, unaccompanied four-part harmonies and ringing chords, evolved in America between the 1860s and 1920s.
Although it is not known exactly when or where barbershop music began, the growth of the tradition was certainly aided by the types of songs popular at the time, songs characterised by sentimental lyrics and uncomplicated melodies that could be harmonised with a variety of four-part chords, and, as such, it relies heavily upon the African/American ‘call and response’ singing traditions.
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