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
Pleasing to see you have referenced page numbers here, Margaret. Another good account of your searching process and what you found and did not find. Yes, the cataloging in Talis is not over friendly and it does expect you to think like it and not like a human.
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