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The Barbershop Harmony Society, legally and historically named the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), is the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbershop music as an art form. Founded by Owen C. Cash and Rupert I. Hall in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1938,〔Hicks, Val J. (1988), ''Heritage of Harmony'' New Past Press, ISBN 0-938627-04-X, p. 14〕 the organization quickly grew, promoting barbershop harmony among men of all ages. As of 2014, just under 23,000 men in the United States and Canada are members of this organization whose focus is on ''a cappella'' music. The international headquarters was in Kenosha, Wisconsin for fifty years before moving to Nashville, Tennessee in 2007. A parallel women's singing organization, Sweet Adelines International (SAI) was founded in 1945. A second women's barbershop harmony organization, Harmony, Inc., broke from SAI in 1959 over an issue of racial exclusion,〔Averill, Gage (2003), ''Four Parts: No Waiting,'' Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-511672-0, p. 132: "Sweet Adelines had no black members, and no one was aware of any black singers who had petitioned to join the organization. Still, the board argued that there had always been tacit agreement about racial exclusion and it was time to formalize this policy...."〕 with SAI (like SPEBSQSA and many other organizations) being white-only at that time.〔SAI and SPEBSQSA lifted their restriction a few years later during the Civil Rights movement.〕 Several international affiliate organizations, in countries around the world, add their own flavor to the signature sound of barbershop harmony. ==Name== The original name SPEBSQSA was intended as a lampoon on Roosevelt's New Deal alphabet agencies. Because of name's length and the difficult-to-pronounce acronym, society staff and members often refer to SPEBSQSA as ''The Society''. For decades, SPEBSQSA was ''the'' official name, while the ''Barbershop Harmony Society'' was an officially recognized and sanctioned alternate. Members were encouraged to use the alternate name, because it was felt that the official name was an in-joke that did not resonate outside the Society. In mid-2004, faced with declining membership, the Society adopted a marketing plan that called for using "Barbershop Harmony Society" consistently and retaining the old name for certain legal purposes. The old official name spelled "barber shop" as two words, while ''barbershop'' is generally used elsewhere. In reference to the acronym SPEBSQSA, The Society has said "attempts to pronounce the name are discouraged". Unofficially, it is sometimes pronounced as if it were spelled "Spebsqua". In late 2004, the Society established Barbershop Harmony Society as its new "brand name", with a logo and identity program released in 2005. Although the legal name remained SPEBSQSA, Inc., the decision was controversial, as many members felt that the new name did not reflect a mission of preservation and encouragement of the style. Many members were concerned that the term "quartet" had been dropped, fearing a movement in the direction of choral singing and downplaying quartet singing. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Barbershop Harmony Society」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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