a cappella

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The Word of the Day for April 9 is: 

a cappella   \ah-kuh-PEL-uh\   adverb or adjective
     : without instrumental accompaniment

Example sentence:
     The group is famous for a cappella performances in which human voices 
mimic the sounds of instruments.

Did you know?
     "A cappella" arrived in English from Italian sometime around the mid-19th 
century. In Italian, "a cappella" means "in chapel or choir style." "Cappella" 
in Italian means "chapel"; the English word "chapel" is ultimately (if 
independently) derived from the Medieval Latin word "cappella," which is the 
source of the Italian "cappella" as well. Scholars once thought all "chapel 
style" music written before the 1600s was performed a cappella, but modern 
research has revealed that instruments might have doubled or substituted for 
some voices back then. Today "a cappella" describes a purely vocal performance.





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