The style of a cappella music has played a major role in human culture and traditions for many generations and centuries. A cappella music is defined as music without instrument accompaniment (a cappella is not a genre of music, but rather a style/type of musical performance); the term "a cappella" derives from Italian origins meaning "in the style of the chapel". The earliest type of a cappella was sacred, religious music that was commonly sung in church, such as Gregorian Chant, a type of monophonic liturgical music created during the Medieval period before the 1400s that accompanied the celebration of mass and other ritual services in the Catholic church; this rendition of the famous 13th century Latin Catholic hymn "Dies Irae" (or, "Day of Wrath," about the Second Coming of Christ and Judgment Day); this is essentially where the term "a cappella" came from.
Modern day a cappella musical arrangements has developed from this early form of music and focuses more on contemporary songs that we typically hear on the radio instead of sacred religious music that focuses more on biblical and church aspects. Over time, a cappella music has evolved from monophonic melodies, consisting of a single vocal line or melody, into polyphonic melodies with multiple parts, vocal lines, and different voices, with variations and a wide range of harmonies or multiple voices singing different notes at the same time. Vocal Spectrum's version is an example of a modern day a cappella song.
Modern day a cappella music also began to develop and change as technology advanced and a new type of a cappella music developed called "overdubbing" which is when singers record themselves many times singing the same song over and over again but singing different parts. Imogen Heap's song "Hide and Seek" is a variation of overdubbing; she performed a sole accompaniment of the song and transformed the sound using a keyboard synthesizer altered by a vocoder, (vocal transformer) creating an altered a cappella sound.
Another example of overdubbing is Mike Tompkins arrangement and a cappella cover of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" and Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are".
Modern day a capella arrangements also focus on recreating the synthesizer and percussion elements that create the overall effect of a song; an example of this is Mike Tompkins cover of Katy Perry's "Firework".
Notice how Tompkins emphasizes the different elements used in the song and points them out individually to show the different sounds used to add to the vocals.
In conclusion, modern day a cappella music arrangements and styles have developed from religious, sacred pieces that focus on Biblical aspects into secular, contemporary versions of modern day music. The advances in technology have also contributed to the different sounds and overall effect of a cappella music today and the way it's arranged now in modern times.
