acapella = unaccompanied instrument

[LanDi Liu]

Google shows "a cappella guitar" 407, and "a cappella drums" 7.  But if you
compare this with "a cappella quartet" 23,900, and "a cappella voices"
(4,930), it just looks like a philistine usage.

I'm accepting that as a reasonably clear picture, but if you want a clearer
one, you can try all sixteen spelling variations (one/two words, one/two Ps,
one/two Ls, -a or -o), plus adding every instrument you can think of after
it.

I doubt the people who would say "a cappella violin" would also be able to
say "a cappella violins" (whatever the spelling), but the original meaning
(which has held steadfast through centuries), normally applies to multiple
voices.

Googling "a cappella violins" returns no results.

Randy

On Feb 11, 2008 1:40 PM, Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at purdue.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: acapella = unaccompanied instrument
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> looks like a widening more than a misunderstanding and nuanced rather than
> gross. if 'chapel style' was narrowed to 'unaccompanied voices' it makes
> as much
> sense that unaccompanied (by instrument) could be widened to mean any solo
> performance.
>
> I'd guess that 'acapello' is from analogy with so many musical terms in
> -o.
> allegro crescendo diminuendo largo lento presto...
>
> And I've heard it from many people with lots of formal musical training.
> michael
>
>
> Quoting LanDi Liu <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>:
> >
> > That's just a gross misunderstanding of the word, extending its meaning
> to
> > instruments.
> >
> > Having conducted many amateur choirs, I've also heard the "a cappello"
> > pronunciation mentioned in the other post, but also only from people
> with no
> > formal music training.
> >
> > On Feb 11, 2008 10:18 AM, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBAQKZO6hrg  has the following
> description:
> > >
> > > ----
> > > Jeff Hughes covering Foo Fighters "The Pretender" on violin acapella.
> > > ----
> > >
> > > The performance is a violin solo, no voice.
> > >
> > > James Harbeck.
>
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>



--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China

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