Collegiate a cappella (or
college a cappella) ensembles are student-run and -directed
singingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist...
groups that perform entirely without instruments. Such groups can be found at many
collegeCollege is a term most often used today to denote degree awarding tertiary educational institution. More broadly, it can be the name of any group of colleagues, for example, an electoral college, a College of Arms or the College of Cardinals...
s and
universitiesA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
in the United States, and increasingly worldwide.
It is not clear exactly where collegiate a cappella began. The Rensselyrics of
Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteRensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a private research university located in Troy, New York, United States.RPI was founded in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer for the "application of science to the common purposes of life", and is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking...
(formerly known as the RPI Glee Club), established in 1873 is perhaps the oldest known collegiate a cappella group.
Collegiate a cappella (or
college a cappella) ensembles are student-run and -directed
singingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist...
groups that perform entirely without instruments. Such groups can be found at many
collegeCollege is a term most often used today to denote degree awarding tertiary educational institution. More broadly, it can be the name of any group of colleagues, for example, an electoral college, a College of Arms or the College of Cardinals...
s and
universitiesA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
in the United States, and increasingly worldwide.
History
It is not clear exactly where collegiate a cappella began. The Rensselyrics of
Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteRensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a private research university located in Troy, New York, United States.RPI was founded in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer for the "application of science to the common purposes of life", and is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking...
(formerly known as the RPI Glee Club), established in 1873 is perhaps the oldest known collegiate a cappella group. However the longest continuously-singing group is probably
The WhiffenpoofsThe Yale Whiffenpoofs are the oldest collegiate a cappella group in the United States, established in 1909. Best known for "The Whiffenpoof Song", based on a tune written by Tod Galloway and adapted with lyrics by Meade Minnigerode , the group comprises college senior men who compete in the spring...
of
Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
, which was formed in 1909 and once included
Cole PorterCole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. His works include the musical comedies Kiss Me, Kate, Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady and Anything Goes, as well as songs like "Night and Day", "I Get a Kick out of You", "Well, Did You Evah!" and "I've Got You Under My Skin"...
as a member. The Princeton Nassoons (c.1939-41) and the Harvard
KrokodiloesThe Harvard Krokodiloes are Harvard University's oldest a cappella singing group, founded in 1946. Four members of the Hasty Pudding Club at 12 Holyoke Street, popular for its all-male, burlesque musical theatre productions, began singing popular hits of their time in four-part harmony...
(1946) were the first a cappella groups at the other of the "
Big ThreeThe Big Three is an historical term used in the United States to refer to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. The phrase Big Three originated in the 1880s, when these three colleges dominated college football. High schools' college admissions counselors and colleges' admissions guides sometimes use the...
" American
Ivy LeagueThe Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The term is most commonly used to refer to those eight schools considered as a group...
Universities. The first all women's ensemble, the
SmiffenpoofsFormed in 1936 at Smith College, the Smiffenpoofs are the oldest all-female collegiate a cappella group in the nation. The group's founding came shortly after a group of Smithies attended a picnic with students from their brother school, Yale University, in Northampton, MA, where the Yale...
, was founded in 1936 at
Smith CollegeSmith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
, and the oldest continuously-singing female a cappella group,
the Mount Holyoke CollegeMount Holyoke College is a liberal arts college for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is a member of the Seven Sisters and one of the oldest women's colleges in the United States...
V8s, was founded in 1942. The first co-ed group was the Trinity Pipes, founded first as an all mens group in 1938 but converted to co-ed in 1970 at the same time as the college.
College a cappella has grown tremendously since 1980 quadrupling in the number of active groups from roughly 300 focused in the
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
Region, to over 1,200 groups throughout the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and around the World. This growth was fueled in part by the style change popularized in the early 1990s by groups like the
Dissipated Eight of Middlebury CollegeMiddlebury's Dissipated Eight, also known as the D8, is the oldest a cappella group at Middlebury College. The group performs both nationally and internationally, at private venues, colleges, and high schools alike. Over the years, the group has arranged numerous contemporary and modern pieces, and...
and the
Beelzebubs of Tufts UniversityThe Beelzebubs are an all-male a cappella group from Tufts University who perform a mix of rock, R&B, pop, and other types of music all over the world while spreading their motto of "Fun through Song"...
. The new style, using voices to emulate modern rock instruments, marked a shift away from the more traditional sounds of the jazz or classical ensembles and glee clubs to contemporary a cappella, with groups focusing on modern pop music, complete with complex textures and a driving beat (see
vocal percussionVocal percussion is the art of creating sounds with one's mouth that approximate, imitate, or otherwise serve the same purpose as a percussion instrument, whether in a group of singers, an instrumental ensemble, or solo....
). Today, even some glee clubs have by-and-large a pop-music repertoire supplemented only in small part by the traditional genres.
Style & Culture
Collegiate a cappella spans multiple genres and styles: alternative and hard rock; comedy; Jewish, including mostly Yiddish or Hebrew songs; Christian, including Christian pop and rearranged hymns; jazz-influenced pop; fusion groups; barbershop; Rhythm & Blues; madrigals; and jazz. Music style and individual group preference mandate a great variety in both in how groups arrange and perform the music.
Whether a group is all-male, all-female, or mixed/coed, most share similar traits. Collegiate groups usually perform with 8-16 members, unlike professional groups that usually consist of four to seven members; a full group roster, however, can measure up to 30 members. Their larger relative size is driven by necessity, as college groups tend to see high turnover year after year, due to graduation and other student commitments. The relatively large number of members allows groups to maintain continuity year after year. The larger size of these groups has an obvious effect on the aural aesthetic created: depending on levels of talent and cross-section blend, collegiate groups are able to perform arrangements with sometimes more than a dozen separate parts.
Collegiate groups are generally self-sustaining, often entirely run by students. Groups may or may not receive financial support from their institution. Many groups record albums of their music, usually every two or three years. The quality of such albums has recently improved markedly, due to an increased focus on elaborate multi-track recording and the emergence of professional a cappella production specialists, such as Gabe Mann in Los Angeles, Bill Hare and
Deke SharonDeke Sharon is an American singer, arranger, composer, director, producer and teacher of a cappella music, and is one of the leaders of the contemporary a cappella community and a pioneer of the contemporary a cappella style , commonly referred to as "the father of contemporary a cappella."-Early...
in San Francisco, Jeff Thacher in New York, Freddie Feldman in Chicago, Dave Sperandio and Liquid 5th in the southeast, and John Clark in Boston. Achievements in collegiate a cappella recording are recognized by awards programs (most notably the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards, awarded by
CASAThe Contemporary A Cappella Society , or CASA, is a 501 charitable organization dedicated to fostering and promoting a cappella music of all styles around the world. CASA was founded in 1991 by Deke Sharon by incorporating the first a cappella directory, The List, founded in 1988 & distributed by...
) and compilation albums, such as the long-running Best of College A Cappella series.
Many college groups compete in the
International Championship of Collegiate A CappellaThe International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, originally the National Championship of Collegiate A Cappella , is an international competition that attracts hundreds of college a cappella groups each year...
(ICCA), an annual nationwide competition in which groups compete to advance through several stages of competition.
The term
a cappella is often treated within the college world as a noun, rather than an adjective, and generally refers to the music of pop-driven student groups. Thus, an ensemble singing unaccompanied classical music might be said to be performing
a cappella (in the adjectival sense), but would not be considered an "
a cappella group."
Live performances of collegiate a cappella would occasionally incorporate comedy for some songs by using choreographed movements.
Arch Sings
An
arch sing is a type of performance put on by collegiate
a cappellaA cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato style...
ensembles. The casual, public performances are typically held in an
archwayAn arch is a structure that spans a space while supporting weight . Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-History:Arches...
for reasons of
acousticsAcoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of sound, ultrasound and infrasound . A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician. The application of acoustics in technology is called acoustical engineering...
and shelter from the weather. Typically one or a small number of a cappella groups will perform for a small audience, often to publicize upcoming concerts, though arch sings are also frequently held simply for their own sake. The term is also sometimes used to describe similar casual, outdoor performances not held under arches.
See also
External links
- Varsity Vocals, an organization dedicated to the growth and development of contemporary a cappella at the secondary school and collegiate level. Varsity Vocals produces the Best of College A Cappella (BOCA) compilation, as well as the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella
The International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, originally the National Championship of Collegiate A Cappella , is an international competition that attracts hundreds of college a cappella groups each year...
(ICCA) and the International Championship of High School A Cappella (ICHSA).
- Recorded A Cappella Review Board, RARB is an a cappella album review service. RARB features over 650 album reviews, many of which are collegiate groups.