thursday, november 16, 1978
daily nebraskan
page 13
arts and entertainment
Chord Motor Co. hums to district barbershop win
g vy fir
I ( I y 1
Members of the Chord Motor Co. pose with the first place trophy for barbershop
quartets which they won at the Central States District competition in Kansas City.
This is the first time a Lincoln quartet has won the award since 1949. Members
are, clockwise from lower left, Al Dittmer, Dale Comer, Lance Powell and Dale
Heflinger.
By Kent Warneke
Dale Ileiliger is a communications rep
resentative with the Lincoln Telephone and
Telegraph Co.
Al Dittmer is the Ombudsman for the
University of Nebraska and has a doctorate
in English Linguistics.
Dale Comer practices law in Omaha.
Lance Powell is a UNL law student.
When these four individuals are put
together, the Chord Motor Co. is formed, a
Lincoln-based barbershop quartet which
last weekend won first place as the best
quartet in the Central States District Bar
bershop Quartet and Chorus Competition.
The district includes five states.
The Chord Motor Co. was formed only
ten months ago at a Lincoln Chapter
meeting of the Society for the Preservation
and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet
Singing in America, Inc. The national group
commemorated its 40th anniversary at the
district contest in Kansas City.
"The name of the Lincoln chapter is the
Lincoln Continentals and we wanted to
keep with the automobile type of name,"
Dittmer said. "One day I was talking to my
kids and after throwing out the name Spare
Parts, they suggested Chord Motor Co."
Lincoln has not won the quartet
competition at the contest since 1949,
when the Keymasters won the title. Dale
Heiliger, tenor in the Chord Motor Co.,
sang bass for the Keymasters. According to
Dittmer, this years's competition was "very
tough, as usual."
"In the fall of every year, there is the
district contest, where an average of 30
quartets compete and the top 3 qualify for
the next contest in the spring," Dittmer
said. "The spring contest will be full of dis
trict winners and runners-up and the top
three placers there will qualify for the
international contest held every year over
the 4th of July weekend in Minneapolis.
"The competition at the International
contest, which is composed of districts
throughout the United States and Canada,
will be very stiff. I think we've got a good
chance to qualify for that tournament,
but not near as good of a chance to win
it," Dittmer said.
The district contest is a two-round
event. All 30 quartets perform in the
morning. The top 10 qualifiers perform
once again in the evening before a public
audience. The 13 international judges
select the winners.
"You have to sing songs that are
between 2 to 4 minutes long and they have
to be songs that are strictly four-part bar
bershop harmony melodies," Dittmer said.
The quartet sang two up tunes, "Ma,
She's Making Eyes , at Me" and "Suzy's
Fella," an automobile tune, "Get Out and
Get Under," and the 1940's ballad "No
One To Crv To."
Although the SPEBSQSA puts restric
tions on what type of songs to sing, strictly
in the barbershop sense, when quartets put
on shows for general audiences, they do
have some variations, like four part
harmony or some pop tunes," Dittmer
said.
And this four part harmony, so popular
in the 1950s with the Four Lads and the
Four Aces, is again rising in popularity.
"I feel that barbershop music is alive
and well in this part of the country,"
Dittmer said , "Our Lincoln chapter has 85
members and we usually have about
200,000 men at our international conven
tions. "In fact, the four members of the Chord
Motor Co., met at a chapter meeting, and
now we've even got coaches from Iowa and
Kansas to help us," he said. "Coaches can
help you with stage presence, understand
ing of the music and the balancing of the
harmony that the members of the group
can't learn by themselves.
"There are so many great things about
singing barbershop music, the chord struc
tures, the unique close harmony, the
ability to blend well, but most of all it's
just really fun to sing."
Friend beaned by the drink of doom
By Ben T. Shomshor
As I wandered about Love Library the other day, I
noticed a morose, black-garbed figure huddled on the
floor in a corner. It was my old friend Ivan Turgenev.
On first glance he looked alright. Though his gaunt
frame, sallow complexion, deep hollows beneath the eyes
and general evidence of dissipation suggested normal
health and spirits, I sensed he was in anguish.
notes from
table 8
Approaching, I called out, "Turgenev, my old
colleague. What troubles you so?"
As he raised his head, a faint glimmer of recognition
and hope crept into his eyes.
"Alas, friend Shomshor. I am doomed, smitten by my
own foolishness."
Fearing that he had preregistered for Psych 170, I
urged him to continue.
"Well, as you know, for weeks I have done nothing but
labor at my first published masterpiece, The Social Impli
cations of Vaseline Allotments Appearing on the Mani
fests of the Berlin Airlift. I have taken time to feed
neither body nor soul, breaking only to walk to the
gaming tables. It was all going so well, so beautiful,
until "
Here he broke off, his body wracked with the cough of
consumption. I imagined ah incipient death rattle forming
in his throat. ". . . until 1 lifted to my lips that accused
draught of vending machine coffee."
Upon hearing this, my soul shuddered with a revulsion
born of pity. The man may just as well have admitted to
being a leper.
I walked away, leaving him to face the fateful doom
which his act had sealed. He had brought it upon him
self; there was nothing my meager talents could do for
him.
Returning to my own work, I wondered: Turgenev was
a man of the world. He had been on campus even longer
than myself. How could he not have known better?
From the earliest times, coffee has been associated
with wits and scholars. The Arabian discoverers of the noble
bean recognized its invaluable effect on the mental
faculties. Supporters of the Boston Tea Party created an
entire nation of coffee drinkers in the new world almost
over night. The French Revolution was brewed in Parisian
coffee houses. Ausgleich, which transformed the Austrian
Empire, was not a creature of wine, but of Kaffee mit
schlag and Sachertorte.
While students realize the vital role of coffee in their
endeavors, they are apparently drinking the wrong type,
resulting in essays not of wit and brilliance, but of stul
tifying turgidity.
Virtually all of the mass market coffees sold in this
country are made primarily with the inferior Coffea
robusta bean. While cheaper to grow than the prized
Coffea arabica, it lacks mild subtleties of scent and flavor.
It is worth your while (and extra pennies) to search out
the specialty coffee made exclusively of arabica.
The Mill, 427 S. 13th St., carries the largest and best
selection of coffee beans in Lincoln. If you do not choose
to grind the beans yourself, store employees are happy to
grind them for you. Buy only as much as you foresee
using in the near future. Once ground, coffee beans can
lose their flavor quickly. If possible, store your coffee in
the freezer.
Once you choose a coffee merchant, you will have to
decide which coffee you want. The merchant should be
very helpful on such matters. Coffee is classed in two
ways. The degree of roasting refers to how dark or light
the coffee has been roasted. As a general rule, the darker
the roast, the darker, (or stronger) the flavor is. Italian
roasts are so dark they have a slightly burnt taste.
Secondly, coffee is classified by the location at which
it was grown. Like wine, the effect of climate and soil
affects the taste of coffee.
When you have purchased your coffee, select a method
of brewing suited to bring out the best possible taste.
There are worse ways of making coffee than the electric
percolator, but you rarely see them.
The perfume filling the room when perking coffee is
like incense to the gods. It is also flavor escaping from
your drink. Why not invest in a drip coffee maker. They
have been used in Europe for centuries and have earned
the highest acclaim. The one-piece Chemex drip pots are
my favorites, buf something else may be more suitable to
your needs.
Finally, the scions of pop culture tells us that coffee is
chic this year. (Apparently, they thought it had been out
of fashion.) Perrier water is also chic, but who can afford
to pay $1 and up to drink French club soda. So save your
money, and dazzle your guests with a decent cup of
coffee.
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