Ensembles singing a cappella. The Pentatonix group as an example of the right development towards acapella

Cappella is the most famous brainchild of the Italian producer Gianfranco Bortolotti. Following the example of the famous British production trio Stock, Aitken & Waterman, Bortolotti joined forces with producers DJ Profxor, R.A.F. and DJ Pierre to create such famous bands as Cappella, 49ers, Fargetta, R.A.F., Clubhouse and East Side Beat. For the first time, the Cappella project debuted at the end of ... Read all

Cappella is the most famous brainchild of the Italian producer Gianfranco Bortolotti. Following the example of the famous British production trio Stock, Aitken & Waterman, Bortolotti joined forces with producers DJ Profxor, R.A.F. and DJ Pierre to create such famous bands as Cappella, 49ers, Fargetta, R.A.F., Clubhouse and East Side Beat. For the first time, the Cappella project debuted back in the late 70s. In 1987, Bortolotti revived this project by releasing the single "Bauhaus (Push the Beat)" under his name. And the next year, the composition "Heylom Halib" was released, which entered the TOP10 and became the standard of Italo House music. To consolidate the success, Bortolotti recorded the first album and two new singles: "Be Master in One's Own House" and "House of Energy Revenge", and then added the singer Loleatta Holloway to the project, who performed the song "Take Me Away", more beautiful, but less successful than the previous ones.

After several new hits from 1992-93, including "U Got 2 Know", Bortolotti decides to also add two British singers: Rodney Bishop (formerly of the Positive Gang) and Kelly Overett (vocalist from SL2). Their singles "U Got 2 Let the Music" and "Move On Baby" become greatest hits Cappella and during 1994 occupy the first line in the charts of several countries. Also highly valued new album U Got 2 Know.

In 1995, Kelly Overett replaced vocalist Allison Jordan, with the participation of such singles as "Tell Me the Way" and "I Need Your Love". However, these compositions were barely noticed by the European charts, and their album "War in Heaven" (1996), released not only in Europe but also in the USA, is sold out very poorly...

Discography:

1990 - Heylom Halib

1994 - U got 2 know

1996 - Move on baby

1996 - War in heaven

I often watch how new a cappella groups are being formed in Russia and almost always I am perplexed, because not only do they all look alike, but also their activities are more like amateur art performances in some provincial recreation center. It seems that they received a choral education and intonation is pure, but the meaning of what they do remains a mystery to me. The reason for my attitude is the repertoire, arrangements and manner of performance of such groups. I am convinced that if there is no talented arranger in the team, then everything the group will do is secondary and parody. Why do we need another “Doctor Watson” and “Turetsky Choir”, why produce what we need to get rid of :)?

In order to more fully develop my idea, I want to cite as an example the young a cappella group Pentatonix, which became known only in 2011, after winning the “The Sing-Off” competition, which I already mentioned.
Here's how things unfolded. In Arlington, Texas, 3 friends study at Martin High School - Scott Hoying, Kirstie Maldonado and Mitch Grassi, that is, they are friends who have been friends since childhood, grew up together and they have a common interest - singing.
One day, they hear on the local radio that a music competition is being held in which they can take part. They record their version of the song Lady Gaga"Telephone" and are sent to the competition. Despite the fact that they did not win this competition, they managed to attract the attention of their native school to their activities and they begin to perform as a trio.
In 2010, Scott Hoying and Kirstie Maldonado are finishing school, while their third member Mitch Grassi is still in school (he is one year younger than them.)
Think about it, I'm talking about a group that consists of schoolchildren without any special education.
So, Scott Hoying then goes to the University of Southern California to get a bachelor's degree in Pop Music, where he joins the SoCal VoCals group, until he finds out about the competition in 2011.
"The Sing Off". He invites his friends from school to join him, but the competition requires the number of participants in the group to be at least five, and there are only three of them. Then they find Avriel "Avi" Kaplan and Kevin Olusola.
They meet the day before the start of the audition for the "The Sing-Off" contest, that is, in fact, the group was originally formed specifically for the contest.

Here's the performance that started it all

I can’t say that this is something special and outstanding, many started this way. But firstly, these are schoolchildren, and secondly, look at how and what they are performing now, and even 2 years have not passed yet

Here's How Will I Now, in memory of Whitney Houston

Here is another from the last, and recorded at home

And here is one of the first clips

I suppose that someone may not like their style and something else in what they do, but we can definitely say that they have rapid development, and there is definitely musical taste, your own style and professionalism.
By the way, in the descriptions for their videos they write that the arrangements are collective, that is, all members of the group take part.

P.S.
At Take 6, which are an unattainable standard of this direction, the participants have repeatedly spoken about who is the "musical architect" of everything they do - Mark Kibble. Arrangements and musical taste - that's what distinguishes the real a cappella bands.
If this is not the case, then it is better to listen to some professional choir than to listen 101 times to a parody of a cappella.

Executor.

Today, the performance of music a cappella popular all over the planet and featured in a variety of genres of music: folk music, rock music, pop, rhythm and blues, jazz and others.

A cappella is not exclusively sung in churches (as most people think). Available big number high-class teams with a very large number of admirers. In addition, there are "university" bands that are very popular in the United States.

What is a cappella?

A chapel (Italian a cappella, “like in a chapel”) - polyphonic, mostly choral, performance without instrumental accompaniment.

The choral work of Orthodox cathedrals uses vocals only a capella. In old eastern temples, melodic accompaniment is sometimes allowed, including the use of classical musical instruments.

A capella is also often used in the chamber choral music European composers 19th century.

I present to you a selection of modern bands singing a capella!

Barbatuques-Baiana

The term appeared at the end of the 17th century, it is usually associated with the practice of papal worship in the Roman Sistine Chapel. In a broad sense, singing "a cappella" refers to any vocal music(soloist, vocal ensemble, choir and combinations of vocal compositions) without instrumental accompaniment.

Distributed in folk art, church music(early Christian - an apologist for praise to God, rendered exclusively by the word (logos), voiced by a human voice, without "flutes and trumpets", was already Clement of Alexandria; early Catholic and Orthodox - organ accompaniment in the West was first used only around 670), and then in the works of composers of the Dutch school, the work of Giovanni Palestrina.

The "a cappella" style of singing was also developed in the secular art of singing by Renaissance composers, including in madrigals.

As a style of professional choral art, singing "a cappella" was defined in cult polyphony by the end of the Middle Ages, reached its peak among the masters of the Dutch school and received a classical expression in the Roman school (Palestrina, Benevoli, Scarlatti). It should be taken into account that in XVII-XVIII centuries singing a cappella (especially secular) could be accompanied by solo instruments or general bass; then performance without any accompaniment began to be valued again.

choral art Orthodox churches uses singing exclusively "a cappella". In the ancient (Monophysite) churches of the East (Ethiopian, Coptic, Malabar) sometimes it is allowed musical accompaniment, including using traditional African and Asian instruments. In Russia, the famous Alexander Grechaninov was a supporter of the introduction of instruments into worship, but this decision was not taken by the Local Council of 1917-1918.

A cappella singing is widely used in chamber choral music of European composers of the XIX century. He reached great heights in Russian choral culture of the 20th century. (op. by Taneyev, Kastalsky, Rachmaninov, Chesnokov, Viktor Kalinnikov, Davidenko, Koval, Shebalin, Shostakovich, Sviridov, Salmanov; activities of the Synodal Choir, the Court Singing Chapel, etc.). Nowadays, a cappella singing is widespread in many countries.

In the colloquial language of musicians, the phrase "acappella singing" is used (it is not a term).

The term "a cappella" appeared at the end of the 17th century and, translated from Italian, means "as in a chapel." The term is usually associated with the practice of papal worship in Rome's Sistine Chapel.

The current a cappella groups have tried to bring modern approach to the instrumentless performance of melodies, often interspersing such an attribute of hip-hop culture as beatboxing, and vocal reproduction of instrumental parts famous songs.

TUT.BY has chosen 10 most unusual and famous a cappella bands in the world.

barbatuques

Barbatuques was founded in 1996 by Brazilian musician Fernando Barba. For a long time, Fernando has been researching body percussion techniques - musical performance by extracting sounds using human body. First as a hobby, but then, while studying at state university Brazil on course" Popular music", he delved into the study of rhythm, and a few years later founded his research center. With the Barbatuques team, which includes students of Barba, he took part in many social and cultural projects and traveled almost the whole world. On this moment The band's discography includes two albums and two DVDs from the show Corpo do Som.

Jukebox Trio

Attention! You have disabled JavaScript, your browser does not support HTML5, or an older version of the player is installed Adobe Flash player.

Acapella trio from Kazan, performing in their own style"street beat a cappella" and performing cover versions of famous songs and his own works. creative activity Jukebox Trio started in 2004, in 2006 on music festival "New wave"in Jurmala, the musicians received special prize- "The Golden Star of Alla Pugacheva", and exactly one year later the musicians opened Elton John's performance in Rostov-on-Don in front of 90 thousand people.

The team was especially famous for their work on the full-length film "Alvin and the Chipmunks", where the musicians sang all the Russian-language songs cartoon characters.

At the moment, there are three full-length albums in the Jukebox Trio discography: Acappellipsis, Rodina I and Rodina II.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Attention! You have JavaScript disabled, your browser does not support HTML5, or an older version of Adobe Flash Player is installed.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo (Ladysmith is the name of the South African city in which the group originated, Black Mambazo is a black Zulu ax that, according to legend, defeats opponents in battles) was founded by Joseph Shabalala. In the 60s, he created a children's Zulu "song and dance" group, which then transformed into male choir. The choir revived the traditions of the Zulu choral singing iscathamiya, which means "crouching step" in Zulu. This style originated in the mines South Africa when a black worker after a six-day working week I wanted to entertain myself with nightly singing of songs and dancing "at my fingertips" so as not to attract the attention of the guards.

The first album Amabutho was recorded by the choir in 1973. It was the first African LP to be certified gold in sales. The record was transferred to CD and today is sold all over the world, becoming the best-selling record in the history of South Africa.

The band's discography includes more than 40 albums, for which the musicians were nominated for Grammy 13 times, four of which they put in their piggy bank.

local vocals

Attention! You have JavaScript disabled, your browser does not support HTML5, or an older version of Adobe Flash Player is installed.

Danish choir, founded by conductor Anna Ostergaard and consisting of 23 people. It consists of singers of various ages, including programmers, actors, teachers and retirees. None of the participants professional singer. In 2013, the choir won second place at the international vocal competition in Aarhus.

The group's repertoire includes Danish folk songs, as well as cover versions of songs by Leonard Cohen, Dido, Tori Amos, Michael Jackson and hits from the 90s. By the way, a potpourri video with hits from the 90s has gained more than 6 million views on YouTube and has become one of the most viewed clips among Danish artists.

Naturally 7

Attention! You have JavaScript disabled, your browser does not support HTML5, or an older version of Adobe Flash Player is installed.

American a cappella group formed in New York in 1999. The founders - brothers Roger and Warren Thomas, having gathered 5 more vocalists, actively participated in a variety of music competitions USA, in most of which they won prizes and won.

Over the course of 16 years, Naturally 7 released seven full-length albums, and a cover version of Phil Collins' song "In the air tonight" reached number three on the charts in France, Belgium and South Africa. The album Wall of Sound took 29th place in the British music tops in 2009.

out of the blue

Attention! You have JavaScript disabled, your browser does not support HTML5, or an older version of Adobe Flash Player is installed.

Out of the Blue is the men's a cappella choir at the University of Oxford. The team was founded in October 2000, but since it consists of university students, it does not have a permanent membership. The choir participates annually in the Edinburgh Arts Festival. Also on the track record are: a performance at the Royal Palace, a tour of the United States and numerous victories in major vocal competitions in Britain, including the International College Choir Festival and The Voice Festival.

The group gained great popularity by participating in the popular British television show Britain's. Got Talent and a cover video for Shakira's Hips Don't Lie, which has over five and a half million views on YouTube.

Pentatonix

Attention! You have JavaScript disabled, your browser does not support HTML5, or an older version of Adobe Flash Player is installed.

Pentatonix is ​​the most popular a cappella band of our time with 7 million subscribers on YouTube and 57 million views of the Evolution of Music video. Founded in 2011 in Arlington, Texas. After winning the American a cappella show collectives The Sing-off five singers noticed the music label Sony Music.

The musicians released two full-length albums, in 2013 they received the YouTube Music Awards for the cover version of the song. group Imagine Dragons "Radioactive", and this year they were awarded the "Grammy" in the nomination "Best Acapella Band".

Perpetuum Jazzile

Attention! You have JavaScript disabled, your browser does not support HTML5, or an older version of Adobe Flash Player is installed.

Slovenian acapella band, founded in 1983, but gained wide popularity only in 2009, after performing their own interpretation of Toto's song "Africa" ​​at a concert in the Italian city of Udine.

The video gained 17 million views, and the choir went on a tour of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Canada and the United States, accompanied by constant sold-outs. In 2009, Perpetuum Jazzile won a prize at the World Choir Games, called the Choir Olympics, in Graz, Austria.

Spiralmouth

Attention! You have JavaScript disabled, your browser does not support HTML5, or an older version of Adobe Flash Player is installed.

The Spiralmouth band practically does not give concerts, spending most time in the studio to improve their vocal abilities. eponymous debut album was praised music critics and in 2009 won the "Best Pop Rock Album" award at the UK A cappella Awards for Innovation in Recording.

Van Canto

Attention! You have JavaScript disabled, your browser does not support HTML5, or an older version of Adobe Flash Player is installed.

German a cappella metal band formed in 2006. Performs music in the style of A Capella Hero Metal, invented by the participants themselves. The group consists of five vocalists and one drummer. According to the musicians, they wanted a beatboxer vocalist instead of a drummer, but not a single candidate could physically withstand more than 5 minutes of performing the band's rhythms. The band's repertoire includes their own compositions and cover versions of famous songs by Metallica, Black Sabbath, Nightwish and many others. In 2014, Van Canto headlined Europe's largest metal music festival, Wacken.

Like Russian folk songs traditional for our country vocal groups, ensembles singing jazz a cappella in Russia have long gained considerable popularity and interest among new listeners. Domestic a cappella vocalists are rapidly developing professionally, constantly improving their level and interacting with other choirs or singers of our and foreign countries. In many ways creative growth vocal groups contribute international festivals and master classes that began to appear in our country more often. Live performances of voice accompaniment virtuosos leave few people indifferent. JazzPeople found out which ensembles inspire new singers to work together.

Jazz Friends

A cappella choir Jazz Friends, created in Moscow by the famous jazz vocalist and teacher Vladimir Sidorkovich, is one of the most popular Russian contemporary vocal ensembles. Talented singers and the singers who are part of Jazz Friends perform jazz compositions a cappella, develop new concert programs, constantly setting new goals for himself and successfully achieving them, largely thanks to the influence and support of his mentor.

The group's repertoire is mainly gospel, spirituals and popular hits in his own jazz arrangement. Being a young band, Jazz Friends nevertheless managed to perform at prestigious venues in Moscow. The choir won the cup in choral art at the Russian Choir Championship.

"Acapella Express"

To date, the vocal ensemble "Acapella Express" achieved significant success in the development of his career and fell in love with so many fans. Six members of the team appeared on the air of major Russian radio stations, and were also frequent guests on the central television channels of the country. "Acapella Express" performed in the projects of Andrei Makarevich, the rock opera "Parfumer", sang at many high-level events.

The band's repertoire includes famous songs popular modern, classical, retro music, folk and jazz. A certain theatricality reigns at each performance: bright stage costumes, dances and staged numbers make their show unforgettable. The choir has already released 4 albums and received several awards in the Best Jazz vocal group and Best Jazz Album.

Phoenix Jazz Vocal Group

Petersburg vocal jazz a cappella ensemble, consisting of 7 charming girls, performs the world's best music hits of all times, popular jazz standards and pop compositions in author's arrangements. The team attracts with unconditional harmony of performance and professional voice technique. The girls are extremely serious about choosing new songs for their repertoire, and together they choose the ones that each of them like the most.

Phoenix Jazz Vocal Group regularly appears on major St. Petersburg music scenes. In 2014, the ensemble performed with the American choir Brothers in Harmony in New Jersey. The team is the owner of many vocal awards, prizes and diplomas, accumulated over 10 years of successful performances.

PlusFive

The male a cappella group treats the world's best jazz compositions with great respect PlusFive. The guys included in their repertoire such compositions as Lord of Castamere, Hallelujah, Feeling good, Quando, Dont You Worry Bout A Thing, Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong) and many other hits.

The young team includes beat box performer, thanks to which each song acquires an additional feature, a modern voice performance. PlusFive can be met with concerts in various clubs of our city, at creative parties and music festivals.

Jukebox trio

Kazan vocal ensemble Jukebox trio You can’t exactly call it exclusively jazz, but the technique and musical genres in which the trio works delight listeners of various directions.

Three young people with inimitable virtuosity sing world popular hits rhythm and blues, folk, rock, jazz in such a recognizable style that from the very first notes played you can recognize their style. Jukebox trio are capable of working in almost any musical genre, which makes the team versatile to implement a variety of ideas.