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Back in 1984, during my sophomore year at Hagerstown
Junior College, I took a Music Appreciation class. For
our final project, each student was to come up with their
own unique idea for something to show to the class; the
only stipulation was that it had to be musical in nature.
One person baked a cake in the shape of a guitar. Another
performed a solo on the clarinet. I decided to perform
the famous French drinking song "Viva L'Amore" in
the style of a barbershop quartet. However, mine would
be unusual in that I planned to sing all four parts.
I had the music in four-part harmony, because a men's
quartet I was in had recently sang it during the annual
H.J.C. talent show. So I practiced and learned the
other three parts (including the bass!), and then asked
my church music minister Terry Ross to assist me with
the taping.
Using the church sound system and audio equipment, I
recorded myself singing the First Tenor part. Then,
Terry played that back to me through headphones, while
I sang and recorded the Second Tenor part (mixing this
new part in with the original First Tenor recording).
We repeated this two more times, adding the Baritone
and Bass parts. It was a little tricky because I
didn't use a metronome; therefore some of the timing
is a little off. Also, since we didn't have a four track
recorder, each re-recording had the side effect of
some generation loss and adding some extra hiss; but all in
all, the final tape was good enough to use for my
final project. I got an "A" for the project, and
many in the classroom still couldn't understand how
that was me singing all four parts, even though I
explained the method to the class :)
So here, without further ado, is an MP3 file that I
made from the original tape. Feel free to give it
a listen and sing along!!
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