Communities either could not afford music accompaniment or rejected it out of a Calvinistic sense of simplicity, so the songs were sung a cappella.

A cappella ( Italian for " in the manner of the church " or " in the manner of the chapel ", also see gospel music and choir ) music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way.

Gregorian chant is an example of a cappella singing, as is the majority of secular vocal music from the Renaissance.

Jewish and Christian music were originally a cappella, and this tradition has existed continuously in both of these religions as well as in Islam.

The polyphony of Christian a cappella music began to develop in Europe around the late 15th century.

Sacred Harp, a type of religious folk music, is an a cappella style of religious singing, but is more often sung at singing conventions than at church services.

Thus, over time, the expression " a cappella " ( Italian for " in the manner of the chapel ") came to mean exclusively vocal music in contradistinction to the spreading use of the organ in cathedrals.

The fact that Christendom has periodically grafted instrumental music into the worship service probably obscures, for contemporary adherents, the long, general and conscientious teaching of a cappella.

This has led to a tradition of a cappella singing sometimes known as sefirah music.

Many Muslim musicians also perform a form of a cappella music called nasheed or Tawasheeh.

Peter Christian Lutkin, dean of the Northwestern University School of Music, helped popularize a cappella music in the United States by founding the Northwestern A Cappella Choir in 1906.

A strong and prominent a cappella tradition was begun in the midwest part of the United States in 1911 by F. Melius Christiansen, a music faculty member at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.

The success of the ensemble was emulated by other regional conductors, and a rich tradition of a cappella choral music was born in the region at colleges like Concordia College ( Moorhead, Minnesota ), Augustana College ( Rock Island, Illinois ), Wartburg College ( Waverly, Iowa ), Luther College ( Decorah, Iowa ), Gustavus Adolphus College ( St. Peter, Minnesota ), Augustana College ( Sioux Falls, South Dakota ), and Augsburg College ( Minneapolis, Minnesota ).

A cappella music attained renewed prominence from the late 1980s onward, spurred by the success of Top 40 recordings by artists such as The Manhattan Transfer, Bobby McFerrin, Huey Lewis and the News, All-4-One, The Nylons, Backstreet Boys and Boyz II Men.

There also remains a strong a cappella presence within Christian music, as some denominations purposefully do not use instruments during

Arrangements of popular music for small a cappella ensembles typically include one voice singing the lead melody, one singing a rhythmic bass line, and the remaining voices contributing chordal or polyphonic accompaniment.

The song is not actually performed a cappella, but rather, explains that before her son was born, her life was without music.

In 2010, the Australian a cappella Quartet The Idea of North was nominated for an ARIA for their seventh studio album, " Feels Like Spring ", bringing a cappella music back into pop culture.

Like the USA, Australia has an a cappella association ( Vocal Australia ) who organizes events, education and resources for the vocal music community.

The third a cappella musical to appear Off-Broadway, In Transit, premiered 5 October 2010 and was produced by Primary Stages with book, music, and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplan, and Sara Wordsworth.

A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato style.

" Stalin Wasn't Stallin ' ( A Modern Spiritual )" was an American patriotic song written in 1943 by Willie Johnson and originally recorded by the a cappella gospel group Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet ( of which Johnson was a member ) in 1943.

As part of its typical season, the Chorus will present two " classical " concert series ( one in November and one in May ), a series of Christmas Pops concerts in December, seven performances of " A Celebration of Twelfth Night " in January ( a musical and theatrical event based on an originally written stage play set in medieval times ), a guest choral ensemble in February, an ' a cappella ' concert series in March, and Summer Pops, a large outdoor performance held in Westerly's Wilcox Park for audiences of 25, 000 each June.

It was originally performed by MacColl and Seeger as an a cappella duet.

It included the Bivins / Smith penned " We Were Made As One ," originally recorded in 1966 but covered in an a cappella, doo wop style to emphasize the group's doo wop roots.

It was originally sung by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is now often performed by the MIT a cappella group The Chorallaries.

The International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, originally the National Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (" NCCA ", a play on NCAA ), is an international competition that attracts hundreds of college a cappella groups each year.

Also featured is an a cappella version of the Hindi classic " Aap Jaisa Koi ", sung by Penn Masala and originally from the movie Qurbani.

In April of 2012, a companion disc was released, titled More Uncovered, which features more new material as well as an a cappella recording of " Eyes of Mercy ," a song originally released on the band's self-titled Epic Records debut.

Daoqing comes from the Tang Dynasty and was originally a cappella Taoist music.

Dartmouth College's oldest a cappella singing group, the Aires were originally formed as the Injunaires in 1946 as an offshoot of the college Glee Club ; the Dartmouth Aires broke with the Glee Club in the late 1970s.

She chose an a cappella arrangement that was close to Edwin Othello Excell's, accompanied by a chorus of amateur singers who were friends of hers.

The early a cappella polyphonies may have had an accompanying instrument, although this instrument would merely double the singers ' parts and was not independent.

The first South Asian a cappella group was Penn Masala, founded in 1996 at the University of Pennsylvania.

The first co-ed south Asian a cappella was Anokha, from the University of Maryland, formed in 2001.

More recently, " Twilight Zone " by 2 Unlimited was sung a cappella to the instrumentation on the comedy television series Tompkins Square.

From 1544 to 1551, Palestrina was organist of the principal church ( St. Agapito ) of his native city, and in 1551 he became maestro di cappella at the Cappella Giulia, the papal choir at St Peter's.

In 1705, he was married ; Antonino Biffi, the maestro di cappella of San Marco was a witness, and evidently was a friend of Albinoni's.

These ' singing clubs ' were often for women or men separately, and the music was typically in four-part ( hence the name " part-song ") and either a cappella or with simple instrumentation.

* Domenico Scarlatti ( 1685-1757 ) was maestro di cappella at St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome from 1715 to 1719.

It was the first composition of a new musical project that became the celebrated album Graceland, an eclectic mixture of musical styles including pop, a cappella, isicathamiya, rock, and mbaqanga.

At Harvard, he was a member of the Fly Club, sang with the a cappella group the Harvard Krokodiloes, was a cartoonist for the Harvard Lampoon ( eventually becoming its president ), and acted in the Hasty Pudding Theatricals shows.

In the fall of 2007, the third generation of a cappella groups was formed, The TechTonics, a coed group of students.