Barbershop is a loverly art, when well done, and a testimony to the beauty that can be achieved with the human voice in a formal disciplined coordination.

So, indeed, is opera.

It would not make much sense to argue, therefore, that opera is folk. Even though, in some cultures and some places, spontaneous exchanges of arias occurs.

Barbershop is arranged music, carefully orchestrated.

Folk music, in the most ordinary use of the term, is neither arranged nor orchestrated, although it can be transferred into tight orchestration. But doing so tends to lose some of the naive vitality which makes it folk music. Glee clubs aren't folk music, either, even when singing "Old Black Joe" or "Shenandoah".

The reason some folkies, myself included, disliked the preppy squads of the Folk Scare, such as the Kingston Trio and a few others, is that they were more formed in the tradition of the glee club, and less actual roots music. Their acts were pleasant enough in themselves, but they were polished for performance in a way that lost the flavor of the original context. And to me, real folk music is about the context. I could write a lot more about why this is, but in a sense its like jazz; if ya gotta ask...


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