CASA - The Contemporary A Capella Society

Word that Werner, a multiple championship director, was moving to The Villages reached the singers even before Werner arrived.

“We knew he was coming,” Carter said.

Werner's
bags were scarcely unpacked when he got an invitation to breakfast from
Don Himmelman, another seasoned barbershop singer from Spruce Creek
South.

“He knew what was coming when he got the invitation,” Carter speculated.

Himmelman,
a retired minister, laid out the situation: There Werner was, a
director without a chorus; and there they were, a potential chorus in
search of a director to pull them together.

By the time the
embryonic chorus was ready to hold an official organizational meeting,
more than 50 people showed up to hatch the Heart of Florida Barbershop
Chorus, which now boasts 140 singers.

Werner doesn't mind that his plans for retirement from directing ran amok.

“I love directing,” he said.

Leading
a chorus composed primarily of retirees who are singing their way
through their retirement years is not nearly as stressful as directing
a competition-oriented group like the Alexandria Harmonizers.

Like
the veteran barbershop singers he directs in the Heart of Florida
Chorus, Werner has subtly shifted his emphasis from the competitive
arena to the sheer enjoyment of music.

“Voices change as we get
older, and hearing isn't as good as it used to be,” Werner said. “We're
not going to sound like a chorus of 35-year-olds. We're doing very well
for our demographics.”

They are doing well enough to place fifth
among all the barbershop choruses in Florida in their first foray into
competition last year.

“We compete in Jacksonville once a year,” Carter said.

The annual competition, Werner said, “gives us something to shoot for. We work a little harder to sing a little better.”

“If, somewhere along the way we win a district championship, that's great. But it's not our primary goal,” Carter said.

The goal is to sing and have fun doing it.

The
Heart of Florida singers, which Werner described as “a number of
gentlemen looking for a way to use their voices,” are there for the
sheer joy of singing.

“A very old man once told me that every minute he spent singing added a minute to his lifespan,” Werner said.

Werner shares that philosophy.

“Singing, to me, is more than a hobby. It's a way of life,” Werner said. “It keeps you going.”

That
the singers enjoy themselves is apparent at their weekly rehearsals,
where Werner uses humor to draw energized performances from them.

The
chorus rehearses at the Austin Carriage Museum in a large room that
smells of fine leather and where equine-related art hangs on the walls.

The
rehearsal begins with speech rather than song: The Pledge of
Allegiance. Then the singers pour their hearts into “The Star Spangled
Banner.”

As they sang the national anthem, the room filled with
the richness of four-part harmony, the trademark of the American art
form that has become known as barbershop singing. And as the four notes
sung by the different parts - bass, tenor, lead and baritone - blend
into a chord, the elusive “fifth note” - the unwritten note generated
by the perfect blending of the four parts - rings above them, an
intangible yet undeniable presence of pure musical magic.

They
would sing other sentimental favorites - “Let me Call You Sweetheart”
and “Heart of My Heart” - before settling down to the work of polishing
not-yet-perfected songs.

Werner stopped them periodically to
playfully goad them into separating the syllables of the words to make
the lyrics clearer or humorously chastise them into pumping more energy
into the song.

“You can't sing about getting rid of the frown when you look like you still have it,” he said.

Some
of the singers chuckled while others just grinned sheepishly. But when
they took up the song again, the energy was there, and the frowns had
disappeared.

This was why they sing.

Reprinted with permission from the Villages Daily Sun: http://www.thevillagesdailysun.com/articles/2006/01/07/villages/villages01.txt