A Well-Executed Choral Arrangement
For the uninitiated, it can be difficult to understand why people love a cappella. Heck, even for those of us who do actively enjoy it, it can be difficult to put into words why we enjoy this art form so. While we’ll never have a truly comprehensive list of everything cool about a cappella, 200 Reasons to Love A Cappella is our best attempt at assembling a list of what makes it great.
Reason #143: A Well-Executed Choral Arrangement
Bringing a choral piece to a contemporary a cappella show may seem counter-intuitive. After all, the form has garnered much of its popularity by eschewing traditionalism in favor of covering cool music in cool ways, and what could come across less innovative than singing something soft and slow in the same style as your high school chorus or the college’s madrigal choir?
The thing is that the excellent execution of a choral arrangement highlights so many of the core elements of what great a cappella is all about—seamless blend, intentional use of dynamics, compounding harmonies upon harmonies to reimagine a piece of music.
Yes, star soloists can go a long way toward captivating an audience, but a choral arrangement casts a spotlight on a group as a united whole, and there are few sounds in the a cappella world more magical than a choral arrangement executed to perfection.
I love it!