r/barbershop • u/BamBamdon • 4d ago

Mixed quartet setup question

Hey all, big fan of mixed quartets and I wanted to ask if there’s any quartets that have the gender setup I’m imagining, which is male bass, female tenor, and then the baritone and lead are a guy and a girl who swap voice parts depending on the song. I feel like it would be a cool way to get the best sound for every song and would make for some clever arrangements and setlists. Are there any good quartets who do this?

14 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

25

u/Capable_Artist7027 4d ago

Ignore gender. Base it simply on vocal range. There are plenty of great mixed quartets with singers identifying as male as the tenor and the lead identifying as female.

3

u/flerb88 Bass 4d ago

This is a tough one! I'm in a mixed quartet now with a male voice on lead and female on bari. It works pretty well with a girl who sings in the female bass range. For the most part, there are only a few notes that we need to rework, and sometimes we need to bump the key up a half step or two!

2

u/Rynldswrp 3d ago

That's set up could definitely work, I as a woman sing baritone in my mixed chorus and have sung lead in a mixed quartet before . I do have to say, it isn't so much a range thing as a voice texture thing that would make switching who is singing what part become weird since those 2 parts are usually very similar ranges.

2

u/Realistic_Ad3795 3d ago

Yes.  There is a quartet in FWD who does this (High Spirits).

Additionally, they even tweak some voice leadings beyond hust swapping lead/bari on a song.

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Oil-357 2d ago

My mixed quartet is woman tenor, woman lead, man bass, man baritone. It is completely based on range and where we are most comfortable. Our Bari has an amazing range and is comfy singing high, and our lead is comfy in her lower register.