Hello All,

What exactly does it mean to be a college a cappella group? What goes on? How does it operate? In this series, I’ll make daily posts detailing the activities of Rhythm and Jews, the premiere Jewish a cappella group at the University of Chicago.

First, let’s be clear on what a cappella is. A quick glance at Wikipedia gives you a definition: vocal music without instrumental accompaniment. This is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years to Gregorian Chant, to the polyphony of Palestrina, to the Madrigals of the Renaissance.

In its more modern, American usage, an “a cappella group” is any amount from 3-4 to 50+ singers who not only sing the Classical repertoire written for a cappella choirs, but arrange instrumental music for the a cappella setting. A classic example of this is the Barbershop Style. Most of the time, Barbershop groups (4 singers) make chords on each note of the melody. This style, however pleasant to listen to, does not successfully mimic the sounds of an actual instrumental song. 

One of the main goals of college a cappella music, however, is to make a successful imitation of the instrumentation of a popular song. One of my favorite a cappella videos on YouTube, a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, turns this epic ballad into a mixture of “doo-wop” instrumental accompaniment and Barbershop accompaniment of the main melody. Here you can see an extremely well-executed mixture of the two styles. These are college students, not professionals or even amateur musicians. 

Groups like this, comprised of 8-15 undergraduate students, exist at most major educational institutions in the United States. They might be all female, all male, co-ed, religiously oriented, culturally oriented, or perhaps oriented towards a genre. Whatever the case, the a cappella group is a popular and ubiquitous establishment across the country. 

Hopefully, for those who haven’t been exposed, this post has been enough to start you off towards an understanding of college a cappella.