A cappella

A cappella
Stylistic origins	Church music Gregorian chanting madrigals
Cultural origins	Jewish and Christian worship
Typical instruments	none
Subgenres
Barbershop music collegiate a cappella puirt à beul

Music performed a cappella, less commonly a capella,^[1] (/ˌɑː kəˈpɛlə/ AH-kə-PEL-ə, UK also /ˌæ -/ A-, Italian: [a kkapˈpɛlla];^[2] lit. 'in the style of the chapel') is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term a cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato musical styles. In the 19th century, a renewed interest in Renaissance polyphony, coupled with an ignorance of the fact that vocal parts were often doubled by instrumentalists, led to the term coming to mean unaccompanied vocal music.^[2] The term is also used, rarely, as a synonym for alla breve.^[3]