WordPlay Wanderings: A CAPPELLA
Whenever a Spelling Bee letter set makes possible the formation of a cappella, some players, not understanding that it is a two-word Italian phrase, try to enter "acapella" or "accapella" or "accappella" or just the single words "cappella" or "capella." And none of those is ever accepted in the Bee.
Why not?
First, both the original Latin expression a capella and its more-commonly used Italian version a cappella are two-word phrases, and the two words can’t just be mashed together.
Second, though the phrase a cappella (or a capella) is, indeed, used in English, the single word capella is not. English incorporates many phrases from other languages. Consider, for example, these common phrases from French, Latin, and Italian that can be found in standard dictionaries of American English:
à la modestatus quobon voyagecarte blanchefait accomplien masseavant-gardead nauseumfaux paspersona non grataprima donnamaestro di cappellaad hocdéjà vupro bonobona fideper secul de sac
Some of the individual words in these phrases are also used as words in English: maestro, status, sac. But for the most part, the individual words in these phrases are not used independently in English, but only as parts of the multi-word phrases. Neither of the two words in a cappella (Italian) or a capella (Latin) can be used independently in English.
The phrase a cappella (or a capella) is never properly spelled as a single word, just as none of the phrases above would be written as smushed-together single words (e.g., adhoc, bonvoyage, alamode, personanongrata).
Classical singers and writers rarely use the term a cappella, referring instead to “unaccompanied” choirs or music for unaccompanied choirs. In classical music, a cappella is primarily associated with sacred choral music, so except when referring to sacred music, it's preferable to use more general terms to describe choral ensembles and the music they sing, which may or may not be sacred.
The relatively recent use of the misspellings “acappella” or “acapella” has occurred almost entirely outside classical music, perhaps due to two separate but related phenomena.
A few decades back, there was a resurgence in the popularity and proliferation of extracurricular unaccompanied choral ensembles at both the high school and collegiate levels. These “contemporary a cappella” ensembles were the modern descendants of glee clubs, amateur choral ensembles (originally only of and for men) that date back to the 18th century, barbershop quartets, and other amateur unaccompanied choral ensembles. (“Glee clubs” were so-called not because their members brought to these organizations an abundance of joyous enthusiasm, but because they specialized singing glees, a name for a certain kind of secular part-songs for unaccompanied voices.)
At the same time, interest in show choirs, jazz choirs, and swing choirs was on the rise, and culminated in the popular television show Glee, which ran from 2009 to 2015. Though the show centered on a show choir (a type of choral ensemble that typically performs in costume, with choreographed programs and often an accompanying instrumental ensemble), some of the episodes also featured contemporary a cappella singing.
Both of these trends brought the term a cappella into public awareness and into spoken American English, including and especially via broadcast media, and thus into our verbal (not written) lexicons. Most people who mis-spell a cappella as a single word may never have seen it in writing, may know it only after having heard it spoken aloud, and may never realize that it is actually a two-word phrase.
The Contemporary A Cappella Society, while preferring the two-word form, uses the Italian double-P word instead of the Latin single-P form.
In classical music resources and writing (such as in program notes), a cappella is always italicized, as are all musical terms from languages outside English (e.g., allegro, lento, arco, pizzicato, etc.)
Second, though the phrase a cappella (or a capella) is, indeed, used in English, the single word capella is not. English incorporates many phrases from other languages. Consider, for example, these common phrases from French, Latin, and Italian that can be found in standard dictionaries of American English:
à la modestatus quobon voyagecarte blanchefait accomplien masseavant-gardead nauseumfaux paspersona non grataprima donnamaestro di cappellaad hocdéjà vupro bonobona fideper secul de sac
Some of the individual words in these phrases are also used as words in English: maestro, status, sac. But for the most part, the individual words in these phrases are not used independently in English, but only as parts of the multi-word phrases. Neither of the two words in a cappella (Italian) or a capella (Latin) can be used independently in English.
The phrase a cappella (or a capella) is never properly spelled as a single word, just as none of the phrases above would be written as smushed-together single words (e.g., adhoc, bonvoyage, alamode, personanongrata).
Classical singers and writers rarely use the term a cappella, referring instead to “unaccompanied” choirs or music for unaccompanied choirs. In classical music, a cappella is primarily associated with sacred choral music, so except when referring to sacred music, it's preferable to use more general terms to describe choral ensembles and the music they sing, which may or may not be sacred.
The relatively recent use of the misspellings “acappella” or “acapella” has occurred almost entirely outside classical music, perhaps due to two separate but related phenomena.
A few decades back, there was a resurgence in the popularity and proliferation of extracurricular unaccompanied choral ensembles at both the high school and collegiate levels. These “contemporary a cappella” ensembles were the modern descendants of glee clubs, amateur choral ensembles (originally only of and for men) that date back to the 18th century, barbershop quartets, and other amateur unaccompanied choral ensembles. (“Glee clubs” were so-called not because their members brought to these organizations an abundance of joyous enthusiasm, but because they specialized singing glees, a name for a certain kind of secular part-songs for unaccompanied voices.)
At the same time, interest in show choirs, jazz choirs, and swing choirs was on the rise, and culminated in the popular television show Glee, which ran from 2009 to 2015. Though the show centered on a show choir (a type of choral ensemble that typically performs in costume, with choreographed programs and often an accompanying instrumental ensemble), some of the episodes also featured contemporary a cappella singing.
Both of these trends brought the term a cappella into public awareness and into spoken American English, including and especially via broadcast media, and thus into our verbal (not written) lexicons. Most people who mis-spell a cappella as a single word may never have seen it in writing, may know it only after having heard it spoken aloud, and may never realize that it is actually a two-word phrase.
The Contemporary A Cappella Society, while preferring the two-word form, uses the Italian double-P word instead of the Latin single-P form.
In classical music resources and writing (such as in program notes), a cappella is always italicized, as are all musical terms from languages outside English (e.g., allegro, lento, arco, pizzicato, etc.)
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