A cappella
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. A cappella 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.
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[edit] Religious a cappella traditions
A cappella music originally was, and still often is, used in church music. Gregorian chant is an example of a cappella 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 cappella form.
[edit] Christian a cappella
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 among the churches 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 cappella style of religious singing, but is more often sung at singing conventions than at church services.
This style began to be developed in Europe around the late 1400s; early works are often identified with Josquin des Prez. The early a cappellas seem to have had an accompanying instrument, although this instrument doubled the singers and were not independent. By the 1500s, a cappella had been fully developed; Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's works are considered excellent examples. After Palestrina, the cantata began to take the a cappella's place.[1]
[edit] Jewish a cappella
Traditional Jewish religious services do not include musical instruments. The use of instruments is traditionally forbidden on the Sabbath 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 cappella, and Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations on the Sabbath sometimes feature entertainment by a cappella 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 cappella singing sometimes known as sefirah music.[2]
[edit] Muslim a cappella
Some Muslims have also adopted the idiom of a cappella music since traditional Islam prohibits the use of instruments except for some basic percussion. Muslim a cappella songs are called anasheed.
[edit] Modern a cappella
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, microphones, and signal processing effects.
The King's Singers are credited with promoting interest in a cappella performance in the 1960s. A cappella music attained renewed prominence from the late 1980s onward, spurred by the success of songs by recording artists such as The Manhattan Transfer, Bobby McFerrin, and Boyz II Men. This prominence in turn led to a resurgence in collegiate a cappella—some larger universities now have a dozen groups or more. The oldest collegiate a cappella group are The Whiffenpoofs of Yale University, among whose original members in 1909 was Cole Porter.
Major movements in modern a cappella include Barbershop, doo wop. Contemporary a cappella includes many vocal bands who add vocal percussion or beatboxing to create a pop/rock sound. There also remains a strong a cappella presence within Christian music.
Arrangements of popular music for small a cappella 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 cappella can also describe the practice of using just the vocal track(s) from a multitrack, instrumental 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. One such example is the a cappella release of Jay-Z's Black Album, which Danger Mouse mixed with the Beatles' White Album to create The Grey Album.
Increased 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. A cappella's growth is not limited to live performance, with hundreds of recorded a cappella albums produced over the past decade. As of December 2006, the Recorded A Cappella Review Board (RARB) had reviewed over 660 a cappella albums since 1994, and its popular discussion forum had over 900 users and 19,000 articles.
[edit] Emulating instrumentation
People do not just always sing the words when singing a cappella; some also emulate instrumentation by reproducing the melody with their vocal chords. For instance, "Twilight Zone" by 2 Unlimited was sung a cappella 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 cappella. Vocal artist Bobby McFerrin is famous for his instrumental emulation.
Beatboxing is a form of a cappella music popular in the hip-hop community, where rap is often informally performed a cappella also.
[edit] External links
- Contemporary A Cappella Society of America (CASA)
- The Recorded A Cappella Review Board (RARB)
- The College A Cappella Web
- Barbershop Harmony Society
- ccMixter A Cappellas (Creative Commons licensed a cappellas)
[edit] References
- ^ "a cappella". (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 2, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online
- ^ Shircago, Jewish A Cappella and Sefriat Omer [1].
