Anybody posting in this thread might want to check out http://www.wers.org for their All A Cappella show, Saturday and Sunday from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
The most dopeworthy a cappella song I know is “Title of the Song” by Da Vinci’s Notebook. It’s like the template for every boy-band ballad ever written. Some actual lyrics:
*Declaration of my feelings for you
Elaboration on those feelings
Description of how long these feelings have existed
Belief that no one else could feel the same as I
Reminiscence of the pleasant times we shared
And our relationship’s perfection
Recounting of the steps that led to our love’s dissolution
Mostly involving my unfaithfulness and lies
Penitent admission of wrongdoing
Discovery of the depth of my affection
Regret over the lateness of my epiphany
(Chorus)
Title of the song
Naive expression of love
Reluctance to accept that you are gone
Request to turn back time
And rectify my wrongs
Repetition of the title of the song*
The “Non Nobis, Domine” heard as the English march back over the bloody fields of Agincourt in Henry V. One male voice begins it, and it swells to a full chorus.
Definitely going to check out the recommendations here. I LOVE a capella.
As far as artists go – the Dale Warland Singers, the Robert Shaw Chorale, and Chanticleer.
As far as pieces go – Robert Schumann’s songs for male voices; Randall Thompson’s Peaceable Kingdom; Duruflé’s “Ubi Caritas,” just about anything by Stephen Paulus or Morten Lauridsen.
And I’m with you, EJs Girl, on “Non Nobis, Domine.” Patrick Doyle. Here’s a YouTube clip. It gets orchestral at the end, but the a capella part…wow!
It seems like every college has at least one student A Cappella group that mostly covers pop songs, and many of these groups are spectacular. Check out the Testostertones, The Hullabahoos, the Brown Derbies, Off the Beat, On the Rocks, Schwa, the SoCal VoCals, or Tufts Amalgamates, to name a few.
Petra Hayden covered “The Who Sell Out” all by herself…the CD is amazing. I was lucky enough to see her perform it live with her group “The Sellouts”, and that was amazing, too.
Sadly, that is a capella only for the first two verses. The fourth verse is awesome as a chorale, and could have stood alone without the minor accompaniment. But from there, it’s quite instrumental.
“Wide Hoop Skirt” by the Nutmegs. Actually, the Nutmegs in general are an awfully good. Also, early Mills Brothers where they did all the “instrumentation” a capella.
Hells yeah! I’m currently in Florida, but I lived in Boston for over a decade, and I can agree wholeheartedly that WERS is one of the coolest radio stations ever. EVER.
Oh, crap. We were getting along so well, and then you had to go and hurt me like that. I actually auditioned for Da Vinci’s Notebook many, many years ago, and those talented bastards turned me down. Grrrrrr. To be fair, I was much less confident back in those days, and I’m sure it came across in the audition. But still…
For me, it’s Stan Rogers’ Barrett’s Privateers. On his Home in Halifax album, it’s sung in four-part male harmony as part of a live concert and it makes me glad to be a straight woman!
Thanks for bringing up this subject. I remember a film back in 1968 called: “if…” and the soundtrack was Missa Luba. I bought the album when it came out and played it to death, getting many of my friends turned on to it (and driving my family absolutely nuts after playing it for the 300th time).
Somewhere back out there you can find a nifty version of The Bangles backed by Rockapella doing Walk Like An Egyptian.
On a completely different tack, a couple of things I think everyone should hear once are throat singing, for example Hun Huur Tu, and David Hykes’s Harmonic Choir interpretation of that type of form.
