Yes, Sean & James,



The “Three Girls Medley” was arranged by the late Ed Waesche as a contest
song for BSU in late 1977. Our goal was to replicate the excitement
utilizing the exact tempo used in other successful BSU contest songs, and
the idea for a medley about three different girls came from one of the
Thoroughbred Chorus’s annual show themes in the early seventies. The show
was called “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and featured barbershop arrangements of
many tunes with girls’ names in the titles.



Ed wrote the verse from scratch, in order to introduce to the listener a
logical reason to sing the praises of three different girls in a single
work. He used the same musical and lyric theme (as was used for his new
verse) in the tag, creating a “frame” for the medley of familiar songs,
“Margie,” “No No Nora” and “Ma Blushin’ Rosie.” We then asked him to revise
the tag to include another final reference to each of the three girls’
names. I’ve been told that Ed’s final chart was used for years thereafter as
a model for teaching writers how to arrange medleys for barbershop quartet.




I can’t imagine that it isn’t still considered a strong contest vehicle,
regardless of any whimsical changes in the Music Category Description.
Every theme in the form of the medley is chock full of major chords and
dominant 7ths. The verse is to be sung “rubato” (free style), and the
remainder of the song is intended for driving tempi, with slight
accelerations each time a new theme is introduced (including the tag). The
range of each part is attainable for the slightly-above-average quartet
singer, and the songs are all from the golden era of American Popular Song.



A sight gag, with a visual punch line at the dénouement (the wind-up just
before the end) can be used to disguise the use of the interpretive tools of
galloping tempo and acceleration, resulting in an even more exciting finish



k-ray, lead

BSU





_____

From: bbshop@yahoogroups.com [mailto:bbshop@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
jetriple@...
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 1:14 PM
To: bbshop@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [bbshop] Arrangement/Contestability Questions



I sang this with the Proud Image (Waterloo, Iowa) at contest back in the
late 80's, if I recall correctly. It was contestable then, and we had one
of the Bluegrass Student Union guys come up and coach us, again... if I
recall correctly.

James Triplett
Linn County Metro (Iowa)

bbshop@yahoogroups. <mailto:bbshop%40yahoogroups.com> com wrote on
05/10/2008 09:42:49 AM:

> I was wondering if anyone here could tell me if the Three Girl Medley
> from Bluegrass Student Union's CD was a contestable arrangement. If
> so, who arranged it and where can I get it? Thanks!
>
> Harmonitoniously Yours,
> Sean C Stork
> PBQLead
> Sunshine District
>

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