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Music performed a cappella, less commonly a capella, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term a cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato musical styles. In the 19th century, a renewed interest in Renaissance polyphony, coupled with an ignorance of the fact that vocal parts were often doubled by instrumentalists, led to the term coming to mean unaccompanied vocal music. The term is also used, rarely, as a synonym for alla breve.
A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm, hand, and facial gestures.
Melanie Clare Sophie Giedroyc is an English actress, comedian and television presenter. With Sue Perkins, she has co-hosted series including Light Lunch for Channel 4, The Great British Bake Off for the BBC and chat show Mel and Sue for ITV. In early 2017 Giedroyc co-presented the BBC show Let It Shine. Since 2015 she has held a number of commentating roles for the Eurovision Song Contest.
The BBC Symphony Chorus is a British amateur chorus based in London. It is the dedicated chorus for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, though it performs with other national and international orchestras.
Deke Sharon is an American singer, arranger, composer, director, producer, pioneer, and teacher of a cappella music, and is one of the leaders and promoters of the contemporary a cappella community. He has been referred to as "the father of contemporary a cappella" by some authors, and "the godfather of a cappella" by others.
Out of the Blue (OOTB) is an all-male a cappella group from the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England. The student-run group sings an eclectic mix of songs, focusing on covers of modern rock and pop hits.
Dona nobis pacem is a cantata written by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1936 and first performed on 2 October of that year. The work was commissioned to mark the centenary of the Huddersfield Choral Society. Vaughan Williams produced his plea for peace by referring to recent wars during the growing fears of a new one. His texts were taken from the Mass, three poems by Walt Whitman, a political speech, and sections of the Bible. A.V. Butcher has analysed Vaughan Williams' use of the Whitman poems in this composition.
Simon Halsey, CBE is an English choral conductor. He is the chorus director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, a position he has held since 1983, and has been chorus director of the London Symphony Chorus since 2012. He is also artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic Youth Choral Programme and the director of the BBC Proms Youth Choir, and conductor laureate of the Berlin Radio Choir. He is professor and director of choral activities at the University of Birmingham.
The Choir is a BAFTA award-winning TV series following Gareth Malone as he tackles the task of teaching choral singing to people who have never had the chance, or experience to sing before.
Gareth Edmund Malone is an English choirmaster and broadcaster, self-described as an "animateur, presenter and populariser of choral singing". He is best known for his television appearances in programmes such as The Choir, which focus on singing and introducing choral music to new participants. Malone was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours, for services to music.
"Wherever You Are" is a song written by Paul Mealor and performed by the Military Wives Choir, sung by ladies from Chivenor and Plymouth under the direction of Gareth Malone. It is a spin-off of the BBC Two television series The Choir: Military Wives. It was released on 19 December 2011 following a campaign to make it the 2011 UK Christmas number one. The song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 1, claiming the Christmas number 1 – selling more than 556,000 copies in the week, more than the rest of the Top 12 combined. The song also claimed the status of the biggest first week sales since "A Moment Like This" by Leona Lewis sold over 571,000 copies in its first week in 2006. The song was included on their debut studio album In My Dreams.
The Military Wives Choir are a registered charity and network of 75 choirs in British military bases across the UK and overseas, bringing women in the military community closer together through singing. With over 2,200 members, the MWC network is tri-service and any woman with a military connection can join including those currently serving, veterans, mothers, sisters and daughters, empowering women from across the military community. The organisation is also a subsidiary charity of SSAFA.
The Missa Brevis by Leonard Bernstein is a musical setting of parts of the mass ordinary in Latin for a mixed a cappella choir with countertenor solo and percussion. It is also Bernstein's last complete choral work, due to his death a year after its completion in 1989.
The Choir: Sing While You Work is a British television show broadcast on BBC Two, a spinoff of the 2006 series The Choir. In Sing While You Work choirmaster Gareth Malone creates and trains amateur workplace-based choirs, ultimately to compete against one another. The series first aired in 2012 and began a second series in November 2013.
A Boy Was Born, Op. 3, is a choral composition by Benjamin Britten. Subtitled Choral variations for men's, women's and boys' voices, unaccompanied , it was originally composed from 1932 to 1933. It was first performed on 23 February 1934 as a BBC broadcast. Britten revised the work in 1955. The composer set different texts related to Christmas to music as theme and variations, scored for an a cappella choir with boys' voices.
Semi-Toned is a British all-male A cappella group from the University of Exeter, in the United Kingdom who sing a variety of modern and classic songs. They were formed in October 2010 originally as a barbershop quintet, before establishing themselves as a twelve-man contemporary group with a wide range of repertoire dedicated to developing their musical abilities whilst sharing a passion for singing and performing. They became more well known after multiple TV and radio appearances on shows such as 'The Choir: Gareth's Best in Britain' (BBC2) and 'Sing: Ultimate A Cappella', as well as singing on BBC Radio 2 with Rylan Clarke-Neal during his 'Great Ka-Ry-oke Challenge' in support of BBC Children in Need 2019. They now regularly tour both the UK and US, as well as performing annually at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and frequently releasing albums and music videos.
The Sons of Pitches are a British vocal group who specialize in a cappella and beatbox. They won the BBC 2 television series, The Naked Choir, in 2015 with six members, Joseph Novelli, Joseph Hinds, Joseph Belham, James Hughes, Joshua Mallett and Midé Adenaike.
Pitch Battle was a singing show hosted by Mel Giedroyc on BBC One. It began airing on 17 June 2017. The show sees rival musical groups facing-off against each other, inspired by the 2012 film Pitch Perfect. At the final on 22 July 2017, Leeds Contemporary Singers were crowned the winners.
Anna Ruth Ella Lapwood is a British organist, choir director and television and radio presenter. In 2016 she was appointed Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, one of the youngest people ever to have directed an Oxford or Cambridge university college choir, and in 2018 she established a girls' choir at the College. As an associate artist at the Royal Albert Hall in London since 2022, her recordings have reached a wide audience on social media.
References
- ↑ "The Naked Choir with Gareth Malone". Gareth Malone – official website. Archived from the original on 6 May 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
- ↑ Catriona Wightman (21 April 2015) "Gareth Malone to strip things back in new BBC Two show The Naked Choir", Digital Spy. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
- 1 2 Brian Beacom (28 September 2015) "Students sing naked in national TV show.", The Herald (Glasgow). Retrieved 27 October 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Sam Wollaston (23 September 2015) "The Naked Choir with Gareth Malone review – Exciting, inspiring, and a teeny bit annoying ", The Guardian. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
- 1 2 Ben Travis (20 October 2015). "The Naked Choir: Can the Sons of Pitches and Choral Stimulation make it through the semi-final?". London Evening Standard. London. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
- ↑ Roz Laws (27 October 2015) "Birmingham's Sons of Pitches win BBC2's The Naked Choir", Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
- ↑ "The Choir: Gareth's Best in Britain". Gareth Malone – official website. Archived from the original on 6 May 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
- ↑ Sean O'Grady (6 December 2016). "TV reviews: The Choir: Gareth's Best in Britain (BBC 2); Rillington Place (BBC 1)" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
- ↑ "The Naked Choir with Gareth Malone – North region". BBC Two. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
- ↑ Zena Hawley (29 September 2015). "Naked Choir: Derby singers aim to hit all the right notes on TV". Derby Telegraph. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
- ↑ Luke Beardsworth (22 September 2015). "Birmingham choir The Sons of Pitches to appear on Gareth Malone's BBC 2 series The Naked Choir". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
