Report Evaluation and Analysis

The hardest thing about picking a topic that will yield so many resultsis deciding what to include and what to cull. As we were given free reign, I selected things I liked ! I confess to being a bit of a dinosaur - I kept hand written lists of search stategies and results, as well as a word document, lists of sites in "favourites" in internet Explorer - not very stable at the Polytechnic so they are on my Delicious account as well!

The site Acapella Hymns was a little odd, impossible to find out about site authors and so on, however, the information on it is well presented and from my other reading seems accurate. It is powered by Word Press, has copyright and "rights reserved" info. It is a .com, but seems to provide historical and current information on Christian Acapella groups in the US as well as selling their C.D.'s.You can read posts and comments on the site, but these have been blocked as it seems to have been attacked by sellers of Viagra, which I am sure was a little distressing to the site authors - whoever they are!

I spent a bit of time on Music Australia but couldn't find an audio link to what I was interested in. Copyright restrictions and limited access meant it just wasn't worth chasing down The Hermannsburg Ladies Choir - Aranda languge songs and Music. I have heard them on ABC radio and television, but the recording listed in Trove is available in 4 libraries in the NT, 1 at the State Library of NSW, and 1 at Melbourne University. Too expensive and time consuming to get a copy of a 1986 analogue tape recording - georgous as it is ! Copyright expires in 2056, maybe it will be easier after that, maybe not.

I seemed to spend most of my time editing and trying to decide what to include.

I wish I'd made a list or references in the one spot and added to this as I went along, instead of having them scattered all over the place. This would have saved time when compiling my reference list. I have been avoiding this and cannot put it off any longer - JUST DO IT WOMAN!

Research for this assignment

After picking my topic I did look at some texts in the State Library as well as searching the web. The the online definitions I found with Oxford Reference from the Polytechnic Library were too brief, literally one word. Strangely enough, searching Talis for acapella/a capella comes up with a big fat ZERO. You find it under "unaccompanied singing". I had to search "singing", then non-fiction, and choral to get any results. Does this system "think" like the rest of us mere mortals or has it been designed to drive us all mad!

There are many acapella styles - traditional African, Gospel, jazz, blues and hybrids of any combination. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music describes A Capella as the "art of using singing voices without musical accompianment ...in the style of the chapel".(p.31) My Dogpile search found a site http://bestacapellahymns.com/ that I think gives a really nice overview to this form in its Christian tradition - early Christian , Gregorian , Mennonoite and the Amish traditions strong within the U.S. today. It makes no mention of the African forms - definitely not christian or hymns descibed by The Cambridge Companion to Singing as an evolution of communal call-and-response forms in nations such as the Zulu. Europeans introduced Christian hymns and the styles blended.(p.52) There is the tradition of Negro spiritual and work songs. (The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, p.31) We now have groups such as Sweet Honey in the Rock, formed in 1973 and still going strong! I came across them after buying on a whim their 20th anniversary CD. Explore their world at http://www.sweethoney.com/about/group.php Acapella became a tool for protest, enlightenment, empowerment! Their site is incredible. It has a timeline, which is pretty useful as they have been around for over 30 years. They have a page for kids where you get to play traditional African instuments. You can watch vidoes. Find out everthing you ever wanted to know about this group. "Sweet Honey In The Rock has come in song to communities around the world raising her voice in hope, love, justice, peace and resistance. Sweet Honey invites her audience to open their minds and hearts and think about who we are and how we treat each other, our fellow creatures who share this planet, and of course the planet itself". http://www.sweethoney.com/about/group.php This is reflected in their lyrics - "A! All we need is a world community, B! Brothers and sisters, one humanity..."http://www.sweethoney.com/lyrics.php#remember

The hunt for an appropriate RSS Feed!

To find an RSS Feed I had more success with Dogpile than Google. Searching Google led me to predominantly commercial sites that wanted to sell me products to make me a better singer and so on - not what I was interested in. I wanted links with people who sang wether professionally or just for fun. Using an advanced search with the terms acapella and choir I found The Contempory A Capella Society site. It has lots of forums and blogs to follow/join under its Resources tab. You can follow particular Blogs or follow topics. You can search for topics at http://www.casa.org/author_type_search I found a conversation about the show Glee - not acapella, but still singing. I must confess to ocassionally watching this show on telly. There are comments about episodes, how "perfect" everything is, even when a performance is supposedly impromptu. I think of it as a serial TV musical - a vehicle for song and some choreography. There are also lots of Blogs on this site that have general acapella "chat". Mr Tim's Glee post can be found at http://www.casa.org/blog/144?page=3

Inspiration for this Blog!

Perpetuum Jazzile have their own website at http://perpetuumjazzile.si/en/ with links to Facebook, Twitter and Myspace pages.They have been around since 1983. I actually found more about their history from their Wikipedia entry than from their own website which concentrates on who they are, what they want to achieve and how much joy they get from performing, (as well as the usual stuff like tour dates and merchandise). According to their Wiki entry they sing in many styles - bossa nova, swing, funk, gospel and pop, either acapella or with a jazz trio.

When in Rome you have to have a photo in front of the Trevi Fountain!

This video took a while to hit You Tube but loads more quickly from here and I deleted the original link ages ago. If you grew up in the eighties, this version of Africa leaves the original
by Toto for dead! Meet Perpetuum Jazzile at -




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I never expected to hear about a Slovenian acapella jazz choir, let alone enjoy their singing and play this clip again and again. All power to the internet! The beginning and ending are very special,a simulation of a thunderstorm that was inspired by the Kearnsey Choir (South Africa).
It was easy to find Perpetuum Jazzile with a Google search - I remembered the spelling and the You Tube entry was the first result, a good Wikipedia entry came up as the second hit - http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetuum_Jazzile.