A Fairfax County resident and former submarine captain, Wiener is director of the Arlingtones, a group of barbershop quartet singers and the Arlington chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. The Arlingtones’ 23 members just wrapped up an outdoor performance in Arlington and are now preparing for their fall concert.
You’re working to keep barbershop music alive. What’s so great about it?
Barbershop quartet singing is something you can do with just three other guys. And it makes beautiful chords, consonant chords as opposed to dissonant chords, as you find in a lot of modern music. And when you’re exactly tuned, it turns out the overtones in your voices will match so you can hear a fifth or sixth note in the chord. It sounds different, and it feels different when you’re actually doing it.
What’s your quartet and what does it sing?
The name of my quartet is Seven Thirty-Four. The Arlingtones are a chorus. Back in the ’30s and ’40s, when the society was started, that was still in the era where there were no iPods and televisions, so people were sitting around singing in groups and people learned to harmonize by themselves. Back when the society started, chapters would meet so you could find three other guys to sing with. Now you join a chapter and the chorus and learn the trade, then you form a quartet. The bass and I have singing in our quartet for 31 years. The lead and the tenor are sort of Johnny-come-latelys, and they’ve been singing with us 25 years. I’m the baritone.
Do younger generations like your music?
They do. Once you get them, they like the music and they like to sing it. Part of what the Barbershop Harmony Society is trying to do is strengthen the music education in the schools so more kids will be exposed to vocal music.
– Liz Essley
