A cappella

For the contemporary Christian singing group named Acapella, see Acapella (group).

A capella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. A capella is Italian for like in the chapel (music); the term is due to the fact that Christian churches sang without instrumental accompaniment for the first several hundred years of its existence. It is often misspelled as a capella, which is derived from the Latin spelling (but in Latin capella means small goat), or even acapella.

Religious a capella traditions

A capella music was and is often used in church music. Gregorian chant is an example of a capella singing, as is the majority of sacred vocal music from the Renaissance. The Madrigal, up until its development in the early Baroque into an instrumentally-accompanied form, is also usually an a capella form.

Present-day Christian religious bodies known for conducting their worship services without musical accompaniment include the Amish, Old Regular Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Plymouth Brethren, most congregations of the Church of Christ, the Old German Baptist Brethren, some Presbyterian churches devoted to exclusive Psalmody, and the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church. Many Mennonites also conduct some or all of their services without instruments. Sacred Harp, a type of religious "folk" music, is an a capella style of religious singing, but is more often sung at singing conventions than at church services.

Traditional Jewish religious services do not include musical instruments. Instrumentation is traditionally forbidden on the Sabbath and Fesitvals out of concern that players would be tempted to repair their instruments, which is forbidden on those days. (This prohibition has been relaxed in many Reform and some Conservative congregations.) Similarly, when Jewish families and larger groups sing traditional Sabbath songs known as zemirot outside the context of formal religious services, they usually do so a capella, and Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations on the Sabbath sometimes feature entertainment by a capella ensembles. Moreover, many Jews consider the 49-day period of the counting of the omer between Passover and Shavuot to be a time of semi-mourning when instrumental music is not allowed. This has led to a tradition of a capella singing sometimes known as sefirah music.^[1]

Some Muslims have also adopted the idiom of a capella music since traditional Islam prohibits the use of instruments except for some basic percussion. Muslim a capella songs are called anasheed.

Modern a capella

In the modern parlance, the term applies to vocal performers who refrain from performing with any instrumental accompaniment, though some emulate the sonority of instruments with their voices and microphone effects.

The King's Singers are credited with promoting interest in a capella performance in the 1960s. A capella music attained renewed prominence from the late 1980s onward, spurred by the success of songs by recording artists such as Petra Haden The Manhattan Transfer, The Swingle Singers, The Bobs, Bobby McFerrin, Take 6, The Nylons, Tonic Sol-fa, Rockapella, Huey Lewis And The News, Todd Rundgren, The Real Group, Zap Mama, and Boyz II Men. This prominence in turn led to a resurgence in collegiate a capella—some larger universities now have a dozen groups or more. The oldest collegiate a capella group are The Whiffenpoofs of Yale University, among whose original members in 1909 was Cole Porter.

Major movements in modern a capella include Barbershop, doo wop, and contemporary a capella. Contemporary a capella includes many vocal bands who add vocal percussion or beatboxing to create a pop/rock sound. There also remains a strong a capella presence within Christian music.

Arrangements of popular music for small a capella ensembles typically include one voice singing the lead melody, one singing a rhythmic bass line, and the remaining voices contributing chordal or polyphonic accompaniment.

A capella can also describe the practice of using just the vocal track(s) from a multitrack recording to be remixed or put onto vinyl records for DJs. Artists sometimes release the vocal tracks of their popular songs so that fans can remix them.

A growth in interest in modern a cappella (particularly collegiate a cappella) can be seen in the growth of competitions such as the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella and Varsity Vocals, both outreach groups of the Contemporary A Cappella Society.

Emulating instrumentation

People do not just always sing the words when singing a capella; some also emulate instrumentation by reproducing the melody with their vocal chords. For instance, "Twilight Zone" by 2 Unlimited was sung a capella to the instrumentation on the comedy television series Thompkins Square. Another famous example of emulating instrumentation instead of singing the words is the theme song for The New Addams Family series on Fox Family Channel (now ABC Family). Groups such as Vocal Sampling and Undivided emulate Latin rhythms a capella. Vocal artist Bobby McFerrin is famous for his instrumental emulation.

A cappella

Religious a capella traditions

Modern a capella

Emulating instrumentation

External links

See also