acapella
Acapella (Italian for 'in the manner of the chapel') is a style of singing without instruments, sometimes some voices recreate instrument sounds to fill out the texture, although traditional acapella focuses completely on vocal harmonies.
As it says above, the word acapella comes from the Italian for 'in the manner of the chapel' and has roots in religion.
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The earliest examples of acapella music can be heard in a number of styles of religious music. Here is one from the composer Josquin Des Prez which was written in 1503 or 1504.
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In recent times, acapella music has been very popular in America with Barbershop and Doo-wop being the two most popular styles.
Barbershop
Barbershop music features a group of men, or a group of women (but never mixed) who would sing in close harmonies (the notes are all near each other) and they would all sing the same words. |
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Doo-wop
Doo-wop is different from the other styles on this page as it did include instruments, and only one person sang the main line. The other singers would add harmonies and accompaniment with chord-based lyrics (including the words "doo-wop" which is where the style name comes from) |
The Four Freshmen
The Four Freshmen started in 1948 and created beautiful sounds with their harmonies.
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UK chart success
In 1983 The Flying Picket's reached number one with this acapella cover...
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...then The Housemartins reached number 1 in December 1986 with this acapella cover. It was nearly Christmas number 1!!!
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YouTube
With the advent of home recording (audio and video), people have been able to create their own acapella covers and upload them to YouTube. Here are just a few....
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Finally, have a listen to this acapella evolution of music.