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

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 restrictions on the use of instruments in medieval churches. It is often misspelled as a capella, which is derived from the Latin spelling, or even acappella.

The roots of a cappella music

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A cappella music was and is often 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.

Present-day 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. 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. Some Muslims have 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 nasheeds. Similarly, some who practice Judaism have adopted a cappella as a style of music used during the traditional counting of the omer period between Passover and Shavuot. During this period it is traditional for orthodox Jews to refrain from any instrumental music. Many Jewish groups have therefore taken to a cappella to produce sefirah music that can be heard through this period.http://www.judaism.com/search.asp?nt=ajDt&sctn=976 List of Sefirah CDs from Judaism.org

Modern a cappella

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Many standard choral works are a cappella in that no accompaniment is written in except perhaps for rehearsal purposes. In the modern parlance, it applies to vocal performers who refrain from performing with any instrumental accompaniment, yet sometimes sound like instruments themselves.

A cappella music attained renewed prominence from the late 1980s onward, spurred by the success of songs by popular recording artists such as The Manhattan Transfer, The Bobs, Bobby McFerrin, The Nylons, Tonic Sol-fa, Rockapella, The House Jacks, Todd Rundgren, The Real Group, Take 6, 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.

Major movements in modern a cappella include Barbershop, doo wop, and contemporary a cappella. 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 usually 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 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.

Emulating instrumentation

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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.

See also

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• Contemporary a cappella
• Collegiate a cappella
• Isicathamiya
• List of professional a cappella groups
• List of collegiate a cappella groups

External links

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• Contemporary A Cappella Society of America (CASA)
• The Recorded A Cappella Review Board (RARB)
• The College A Cappella Web
• Barbershop Harmony Society
• Alliance for A Cappella Initiatives (AACI)
• "The Blend" official webpage for the a cappella radio program

Singing

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