A cappella group performing on stage
The A Cappella Blog

A cappella means...

Friday Factoid

On selected Fridays, The A Cappella Blog publishes a fact, statistic or piece of history from collegiate a cappella. We welcome readers to share their own bits of uncommon knowledge, or to pose questions if there's a Friday Factoid they'd like to see.

The term a cappella, today, is used to describe any singing without instrumental accompaniment. The roots of the term, though, are Italian. “A cappella" means "like the chapel" in Italian, which is representative of its roots in the church, and specifically the Sistine Chapel, in which musical masses were performed without accompaniment.

Sources: dictionary.com; wikipedia.org; The New Oxford American Dictionary

© 2007 - 2021, The A Cappella Blog. All rights reserved. Terms