A Cappella is That How You Spell It

7/28/2019 A Cappella is That How You Spell It

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A Cappella? Is That How You Spell It?

The phrase a cappella is among the most butchered and misunderstood musical terms. Thepredominant, and most "correct" spelling, is ...

a cappella - two words, two "p's", two "l's."

A Cappella, A Picky Definition

Musicologists have fun debating the extent to which a cappella, 'in the style ofthe chapel,' caninclude instrumental accompaniment. Some argue that early sacred a cappella performances wouldsometimes include instruments that double a human voice part. So, the correct definition of acappella should be something like 'singing without independent instrumental accompaniment.'

At Primarily A Cappella, we are trying to popularize this style of music, so welike to keep it simple.

a cappella - two words, two "p's", two "l's."singing without instruments

A Capella?

Some musical dictionaries indicate that the Italian a cappella is preferred overthe Latin a capella(one "p") yet both are technically correct. Why do those dictionaries muddy thewaters with twospellings?

The phrase was first used in Italian Catholic churches, where Latin was the language for sacred text.

Thus, the Latin spelling for 'in the style of the chapel' - a capella - has somehistorical basis.However, most other musical terms - forte, accelerando, and many others - are Italian in origin.Since the Italian spelling is more consistent with other musical terms, it has been used morefrequently.

Given the difficulty of spelling our favorite style of music, we'd like to endorse the simplicity of asingle spelling:

a cappella - two words, two "p's", two "l's."

singing without instruments

Acappella

Joining the two Italian words together to make Acappella is a popular variationin the U.S. For manystreetcorner singing fans, Acappella means unaccompanied singing of 'fifties (and early 'sixties)songs. There were a series of recordings released in the early 1960's of Mid-Atlantic


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unaccompanied doo-wop groups called "The Best of Acappella." The liner notes onthe first LPnoted that Acappella means "singing without music." In this matter we do tend towards being picky -instruments do not alone music make! A cappella (or Acappella) singers make music while they are...

singing without instruments

A more recent, second meaning of Acappella has emerged. The Contemporary Christian groupAcappella is the first formed by prolific songwriter Keith Lancaster. In the early 1990's he addedAcappella Vocal Band (now mostly known as AVB) and "Acappella: The Series" whichuses studiosingers (plus LOTS of electronic help) to perform songs around specific themes.All of these effortsare now combined in The Acappella Company. The good news is they have sold millions ofrecordings and have contributed greatly to the awareness of a cappella. The badnews is they havepopularized a spelling variation, and through the heavy use of electronically manipulated voice (which

can sound like any other synthesized instrument) have chipped away at the idea of ...

singing without instruments.

A Capela

This spelling is totally wrong, and yet has been used by those who should know better. The mostprominent occurrence is on the re-release of first album by the Singers Unlimited. Originally titled"Try to Remember," this very popular collection of vocal jazz arrangements by Gene Puerling has no

doubt led some to misspell, or at least question the correct spelling of ...


Occapella

The Manhattan Transfer sang a song with this title on their debut, eponymous album. Ironically, thewhole song is accompanied, as are most of their songs by this group, so one canonly guess at theintended meaning. The lyrics "Everything's gonna be mellow, Listen while we singit occapella"

precede a refrain of scat-like harmony (with the band receding into the background but still audible).

Also ironically, The Manhattan Transfer are often the group music lovers think of when they hear thephrase "a cappella." Many people associate "close harmony" with "a cappella," which certainlymakes a great deal of sense. Popular twentieth century a cappella is characterized by extensive useof close harmony - when voices separated by small intervals (seconds, thirds, fo


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urths) sing the samerhythm and words. The Manhattan Transfer sing great close harmony, but most of it includesinstrumental accompaniment. Only a handful of their dozens of songs are performed a cappella.

Oxapello? (yech!)

The Blenders open their second album "From the Mouth" with a schtick by this title. On this briefcut, the group is trying to discuss their new recording with an unenlightened agent, who keepsreferring to the style of 'Oxapello.' Hopefully the next time you run into someone similarly confused,you'll remember to politely tell them:


A Cappello

On the Trenchcoats' second album, "Your Joy," one of the fun originals is "A Cappello Blues." Thephrase is sung straight (that is, pronounced incorrectly) until the final chorus

, when a hesitatingvoice-over says "uh, isn't it, a cappella, with an "a"?" By now, hopefully, you've got the correctspelling emblazed in your brain.

Why "Primarily" A Cappella?

Singing without instruments comes in many shapes and sizes. One of the attractions for artists is thenearly unlimited pallet the voice provides. The same singer can sound sultry andsexy one minute,cold and machine-like the next, then change to a trumpet, and morph again to a soft harmonic

background "ooooh."

In short, a cappella enables "out of the box" music - art that defies singular categorization.

It's not surprising, then, that the artists who create breathtaking, out of thebox a cappellaperformances sometimes want to add instruments. The vocal pallet does have somelimitations, afterall. We endorse artistic creativity, and so we include recordings that include accompanied songsalong with a cappella performances.

Another issue debated among purists is whether a cappella allows for percussionaccompaniment.While we think the Nylons, Acappella and others should be allowed to describe themselves as"singing without instruments" without saying 'but with a drum track,' our 'primarily' moniker allows usto step aside and let customers decide.

Of course, it's not always the artists that choose to add instruments. Recordingindustry executives


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A Cappella is That How You Spell It