Collegiate a Cappella: Emulation and Originality

Author(s): Joshua S. Duchan

Source: American Music, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Winter, 2007), pp. 477-506
Published by: University of Illinois Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40071679
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 JOSHUAS.DUCHAN

Collegiate A Cappella:
Emulation and Originality

A cappellagroupsthriveon college and universitycampusesthroughout

the nation (andbeyond).The genreof amateurvocal music these groups
representhas grown prodigiouslyin numbersand prominenceover the
past twenty-fiveyearsor so. Therearenow abouta thousandcollegiatea
cappellagroupsin the United States,many of whom in recentyearshave
seen flatteringpress coveragein majormedia outlets.1Typicallyconsist-
ing of up to sixteen singers who come in all-male,all-female,and mixed
varieties,these groups draw most of theirrepertoryfrompopularmusic
recordingsof the late twentiethand early twenty-firstcenturies.
Collegiate a cappella balances emulation- a desire to sound like its
recordedmodels- with an aspirationfor originality.The OxfordEnglish
Dictionarydefines "emulation"as "the endeavour to equal or surpass
others in any achievement or quality."2This nicely captures how the
term applies to a musical practicethat uses certaintechniques in order
for the vocal-only presentationof a song to "equal"the commercialre-
cording (which usually includes instruments).These techniquesmight
be describedas "imitation"or "mimicry,"especially if the instrumental
function of the vocal parts is clear.Other techniques, however, aim to
"surpass"the commercial recording. By offering new musical ideas,
those techniques add originality to the song and/or its presentation.
Althoughemulationand originalityhave an inherenttension and some-
times contradicteach other,both pervade the practiceof a cappella.

Joshua S. Duchan received his Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Michi-
gan in 2007. The present article is adapted from a portion of his dissertation,
"Powerful Voices: Performance and Interaction in Contemporary Collegiate A
Cappella." He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Music Department at
Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Mich., where he teaches courses in American
music, world music and cultures, and popular music.
AmericanMusic Winter 2007
© 2008 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
478 Duchan

Certainmusical characteristicsdistinguish collegiate a cappella from

other American popular and secular vocal ensembles, such as barber-
shop quartets,doo-wop groups, and glee clubs. First,a cappella takes
recordingsof rocksongs as its raw materialand maintainsrock'smusi-
cal distinction between the lead solo and its accompaniment,whereas
barbershopdraws its repertoryfromthe late nineteenthand early twen-
tieth centuries and features primarily equal-voice settings.3 Second,
the vocal percussion and degree of instrumentalimitation found in a
cappella (bothdescribedbelow) separateit fromdoo-wop, which relied
on pitched voices and, in some cases, actual instrumentsfor its rhyth-
mic drive.4Third,the limited size and student leadership of a cappella
groups sets them apart from most modern glee clubs.5
Becausecollegiatea cappellatakespopularrecordingsas its raw mate-
rial, it provides an excellent case study of intertextualityand recontex-
tualizationin popular music. At its core lies the practiceof "covering."
Although terminologicalagreementseems elusive, scholarstend to dis-
tinguish between at least two types of covering. David Horn draws a
distinction between covering, which "generallyrequiressome kind of
close approximationto an original," and "interpreting,"which "may
possibly involve that,but does not have to."6Deena Weinsteinpairs the
idea of a cover with that of a "version,"and differentiatesthe two by
their referenceto preexistingmaterial:
A cover song iterates (with more or fewer differences)a prior re-
corded performance of a song by a particular artist, rather than
simply the song itself as an entity separate from any performer
or performance. When the song itself (as opposed to the perfor-
mance) is taken as the referencefor iteration,each performerdoes
a version or a rendition of the song, and none of these versions is
a necessary reference.7
On the other hand, Serge Lacasseassociates "the idea of interpretation
or reading"directlywith the process of covering,which he defines as "a
renderingof a previously recordedsong that displays the usual stylistic
configurationof the covering artist."8Note Lacasse's and Weinstein's
specific referencesto previously recordedmaterial,which is not found
in Horn's distinction but which is particularlyrelevant to collegiate a
cappella.
I takeWeinstein'sdefinitionsas a point of departurebecausethey offer
the most useful and specific distinctionwithin the realmof mimetic,in-
tertextualpractices.Despite the theoreticaldistinctionsin the discourse
of popular music scholarship,however, genres also exist in which such
distinctionsas "covers"and "versions"necessarilyblur.The techniques
discussed here,and the social motivationsfor them,illustratehow a cap-
pella draws on both ideas simultaneously.9
 CollegiateA Cappella 479

Theclaimsin this articledo not necessarilyapply to all collegiatea cap-

pella groups. They arebased primarilyon ethnographicresearchwith a
handfulof groups and my own experiencewith a cappellain variousca-
pacities.10Thehistoricalbackgroundwith which I begin merelysketches
a cappella'shistory in orderto provide context.ThereafterI hope to lay
a foundationon which future a cappella researchcan build.11

Historical Background
Collegiate a cappella emerged from earliervocal genres on college and
university campuses, including colonial and early nineteenth-century
choral groups at universities such as Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale.
Survivingtunebooksand songsters,containingboth sacredand secular
songs, offerevidence of organizedcollege singing in colonialAmerica.12
In 1807,the Handel Society was founded at DartmouthCollege.13The
following year saw the startof the PierianSodality,an instrumentalclub
at Harvardwhose meetings also included singing.14The YaleMusical
Society, founded in 1812, was an ensemble of twelve chapel singers,
and in 1826,the school's Beethoven Society added secular songs to its
repertory.15 Groupslike these performedat commencementceremonies
and proms, and sometimes traveledto instructional"conventions"and
academicfestivals across New England.
Collegiateglee clubsappearedin the middle of the nineteenthcentury,
with the firstfounded in 1858at Harvardby BenjaminWilliamCrownin-
shield afterearlierattemptsin 1833,1834,and 1841failed to take root.16
Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, Yale students formed vocal ensem-
bles with other members of their class; the YaleGlee Club coalesced in
1861out of this tradition.Glee clubs were (and largely continue to be)
single-sex ensembles, which for several decades operated without the
direct leadership of university personnel. For example, the University
of MichiganMen's Glee Club,founded in 1859,firstcame under faculty
leadershipin 1908,and the HarvardGlee Club was led by ArchibaldT.
Davison, professorof choral music at Harvard,beginning in 1912.17
Smallvocal ensemblesformedwithin and alongside college glee clubs
and werepopularas earlyas the 1840s.18 Collegiatea cappellais oftensaid
to start with the Whiffenpoofs,a seven-man group that emerged from
the VarsityQuartet,an elite subset of the YaleGlee Club. The Whiffen-
poofs beganin January1909,with regularweekly performancesat Mory's
TempleBar,a popular student pub in New Haven. They are generally
regardedas the firstcollegiatea cappellagroupbecausethey arethe old-
est continuously existing group (still active today) and have remained
administrativelydistinctfromthe university'sofficialchoralensembles,
including the Glee Club.19
Collegiatea cappellahas also been influencedin the twentiethcentury
480 Duchan

by otheramateurand commercialvocal genres,which providedcollege-

age singers with inspiration,models to follow, and vocal innovationsto
adopt. Barbershopquartetsinging, for example, was a prominentand
popular genre of close-harmonysinging beginning around the turn of
the twentiethcentury.Manyof barbershop'ssocialeffects,which scholars
such as Gage Averilland Liz Garnetthave investigated,can be found in
a cappellapractice.20Musically,much of the Whiffenpoofs'early reper-
tory draws heavily on the barbershopstyle.21
Instrumentalimitation,one of collegiatea cappella'skey features,origi-
nated not in barbershoppractice,however, but in other,more commer-
cially oriented,vocal genres. Forexample, the Mills Brothers,one of the
most popularvocalgroupsof the swing era,made remarkablyconvincing
vocal imitationsof instruments.22In the 1950s urbanstreet-cornerdoo-
wop, recordedand made popularby many vocal quartetsand quintets,
followed suit. Commercialvocal harmonycontinuedinto the 1980sand
1990s,as a cappella hits such as Billy Joel's "TheLongestTime"(1983),
BobbyMcFerrin's"Don'tWorry,Be Happy" (1988),and Boyz II Men's
"It'sSo Hardto Say Goodbye to Yesterday"(1991)topped the chartsand
earned criticalrecognition.23These songs appearedduring the very pe-
riod when collegiatea cappellaproliferatedrapidlyon Americancollege
campuses and likely contributedto this expansion (see figure I).24
Most early collegiate a cappella took place at elite institutionsin the
northeasternUnitedStates.TTieseincludedthe Ivy Leagueschools,which
claimed twenty-six groups (with Yale'seleven more than double any
other of the elite eight), as well as numerousotheresteemed institutions
in that part of the country,including AmherstCollege (DQ, 1926),Wil-
liams College (WilliamsOctet,1940),VassarCollege (Night Owls, 1942),
and the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology (Logarhythms,1949).25
But the number grew dramaticallyin the late 1980s through the 1990s.
In 1980therewere approximately110active groups. These included the
Whiffenpoofs,Spizzwinks(?)26(1914),and Alley Cats (1943)at Yaleas
well as groupslike the Smiffenpoofs(SmithCollege,1936),the Kingsmen
(ColumbiaUniversity,1949),the Friars(Universityof Michigan,1955),
the Beelzebubs(TuftsUniversity,1962),and the Clef Hangers(University
of North Carolinaat Chapel Hill, 1977).By the end of the 1980s,at least
226 groups existed. The geographicscope began to widen, with groups
establishedat institutionssuch as the Universityof Vermont(TopCats,
1980),WashingtonUniversity,St. Louis (Pikers,1985),YorkUniversity,
Toronto(Wibijazz'n,1988),and the Universityof Georgia(Noteworthy,
1989).Withinthe next decade, 313 newgroups had begun- more in the
period 1990-99than in the prioreighty-oneyears.The most new groups
were establishedin 1996,when forty-sixwere founded in a single year.
The first five years of the new century show approximatelythe same
growth rate as the previous decade.
 CollegiateA Cappella 481

Figure1. Growthof CollegiateA Cappella,1909-2005.

Changes in high school music education in the United States had nur-
tured the growth of collegiate a cappella. The contest movement that
began in Kansas in 1914, for example, enabled school choral ensembles
to participate in organized competitions, stimulating the forming of glee
clubs and granting them respectability. The 1928 meeting of the Music
Supervisors National Conference (MSNC) was dubbed a "singing con-
ference" and featured numerous high school a cappella choir perfor-
mances and a quartet contest. Between 1928 and 1934 the MSNC hosted
the National High School Chorus. Finally, music publishers realized the
potential of the high school choir market and began advertising in music
education journals.27
By the end of the "a cappella craze" of the 1930s and '40s, unaccom-
panied choral singing was firmly established in the curriculum. This
continued into the second half of the century, when music educators
increasingly embraced popular music.28Following the Tanglewood Sym-
posium of 1967, the Music Educators National Conference endorsed
popular music in music education.29 Two years later, in the summer of
1969, the Youth Music Institute was convened at the University of Wis-
consin so that high school students could teach popular music styles to
teachers.30 Such events helped lay the foundations for the collegiate a
cappella boom in the '80s and '90s.
But that boom also depended on the integration of male and female
students in American colleges and universities. Early single-sex a cap-
pella groups, such as the Yale Whiffenpoofs and the Smith Smiffenpoofs,
482 Duchan

were founded at single-sex schools. Although some schools with strong

a cappella scenes, such as StanfordUniversity (founded in 1891),were
coeducationalfrom the start,many more became so during the twenti-
eth century.Forexample,in the Ivy League,Princetonand Yalebegan to
admit women in 1969,Brownin 1971,Dartmouthand Harvardin 1972,
and Columbia in 1983.31By early 2007, the College Board listed fifty-
one women's, sixty-fivemen's, and 3,724coed colleges in its database.32
Not surprisinglythen, as figure 1 shows (above), mixed groups lagged
significantlyin popularity until the early 1980s;by the mid-1990sthey
actuallysurpassed in number the single-sex groups.
Whilecollegiatea cappellabegan to grow morerapidly,a new genera-
tion of professionala cappellagroupsemerged,includingthe Manhattan
Transfer(founded 1972),the Nylons (1979),the Bobs (1982),Rockapella
(1986),Take6 (1988),the House Jacks(1991),and Five O'ClockShadow
(1991).Thesegroupsprovidedsounds thatservedas models forthe grow-
ing collegiatescene. A popular PBStelevision documentarydirectedby
SpikeLee, Spike& Co.:Do It A Cappella(1990),featuredRockapella,Take
6, and others. It was influentialenough to garnerpraise in the Contem-
poraryA CappellaNewsletter,a publicationof the nascent Contemporary
A CappellaSociety (CASA),which was founded in 1991by formerTufts
UniversityBeelzebubsmemberDeke Sharon.33
Coincidingwith the a cappella boom of the 1990swas the rise of the
Internet.E-mail, Usenet discussion boards, and the World Wide Web
becameincreasinglyaccessible,especiallyon college and universitycam-
puses where connections were usually fast and efficient. In the early
'90s,a cappellaenthusiastsshared messages containingquestions, tips,
and discussions of recordingsand performanceson the Usenet board
rec.music.a-cappella.In 1994 the RecordedA Cappella Review Board
(RARB)began as an on-line archive of a cappella recordingreviews, a
criticalapparatusfor the a cappella community.The website continues
to host a discussion forum to which professionaland collegiate singers,
engineers, and other enthusiasts regularlycontribute.34
In 1995Deke Sharonand Adam Farb,a 1994BrownUniversitygradu-
ate, started the annual Best of CollegeA Cappella(BOCA)compilation
albums. Continuing to this day, the BOCAseries highlights the "best"
collegiate a cappella recordings each year.35In 1996 Sharon and Farb
establisheda live competition,now called the InternationalChampion-
ship of CollegiateA Cappella(ICCA), which draws college groups from
all regions of the United States and, since 2006,WesternEurope.Thus,
between these two competitions,CASA,and RARB,several institutions
emerged over the course of the 1990s that organized and institutional-
ized collegiate a cappella practice and provided spaces, both physical
and virtual,where music and musical ideas could be shared.
 CollegiateA Cappella 483

Emulation in A Cappella
In collegiatea cappella,emulationis necessary,though rarelysufficient.
A successfularrangementmust preserveimportantharmonic,rhythmic,
and melodic aspects of a song's commercialrecording.An audience's
abilityto recognizea song, despitethe shiftfroma vocal and instrumental
pop recordto the voices-only medium, does much to determine an ar-
rangement'ssuccess and, by extension,a group's as well. Two members
of CompanyB, a mixed group at BrandeisUniversityin Waltham,Mas-
sachusetts,agreedthatarrangementsclosely mimickingthe commercial
recordingshelp determinea song's success in performance:
jb:The reasonthat we try to stay so true to the song is so that when we
sing it, it sounds like the song. Wewant our arrangementto bethesong,
just a cappella.Youknow, we don't want to change it [from]the way
the artistintended it to be. So-
ll: And then the audience really catchesonto it-
jb:Yeah.
ll: - and they really like the way it's just how they heard it on the ra-
dio.36
Theirlanguagerevealsthatthey aretalkingaboutthe soundof an artist's
commercialrecording.Tothem,it is obvious thatthe "song"is the record-
ing, and it needs to be reproducedaccuratelyto satisfy audiences.37
A starting point is transcription,simply notating for voices what is
played by instruments. Anna Callahan, author of the only arranging
manual specificallyfor collegiate a cappella, proposes a continuum on
which she locates three types of arranging:(1) "transcribing,"(2) what
she calls "transanging,"and (3) "truearranging."Her language seems
to place the greatestvalue on the latter:
[Transcribing:]the actof listeningto somethingand writingdown
exactly what you hear.
[Transanging:]to convert a song originally played with instru-
mentationinto an a cappella song without substantiallychanging
the melody,harmonicstructure,or style. Transangingoften involves
restructuring,simplification,rangeadjustments,syllableassigning,
and othermodificationsof the original,but is always replicatingthe
originalversion.
[Truearranging:]This is the type of arrangingthat I call "true"
arranging,not because transcribingand transangingaren'tuseful,
difficult,or creative,but because this type of arrangingallows you
the freedom to really express yourself. [Includesdramaticchanges
of style, mood, meter,form, and dynamic growth.]38
484 Duchan

Callahan's terminology suggests that emulation alone fails to produce

"true" a cappella, or to allow arrangers and singers "to really express"
themselves. Other practicing a cappella musicians agree. For example,
in 2004, one arranger criticized "strictly imitative charts." He wrote, "I
agree with those . . . who are tired of literal transcriptions of pop tunes.
That's not art, it's math. I don't want to go to math concerts."39
Still, at its core, a cappella is about originality achieved through some
form of emulation. An adequate a cappella arrangement (and perfor-
mance) sounds like the song's commercial recording. Weinstein would
consider that a cover, albeit with voices only - a significant caveat. But
an excellent arrangement will present the song in a new way that pays
homage to the original while adding something unexpected.
Collegiate a cappella arrangers typically begin the process of arranging
by listening to the song's commercial recording. Only rarely did I hear of
arrangers using commercially published piano and vocal arrangements
as starting points. Occasionally, arrangers download MIDI arrangements
of songs from the Internet to use as models.40 Mostly, however, they lis-
ten closely and repeatedly to a song's original recording and determine
the necessary instrumental parts, chord structures, and other important
distinctive aspects to incorporate into their arrangement.
While some a cappella groups sing commercially available arrange-
ments, most also create their own. Some singers bring considerable mu-
sical experience to their group, rendering them fluent in music notation
and/or composition. But a cappella arrangements are different from
other choral arrangements (see below), so some additional instruction is
necessary before these individuals can effectively arrange for their group.
Most arrangers learn by observation; they see, sing, and experience the
arrangements already in their group's repertory and discern their basic
components and effective aspects. However, some groups take a more
active role in training arrangers. In Company B, all first-time arrangers
must partner with an experienced arranger in order to learn the process.
Thus, whether through observation or more explicit pedagogy, arrangers
learn how to be both emulative and original.
One emulative technique involves expanding the number and function
of vocal parts. While many collegiate a cappella arrangements reflect the
standard SATB, SSAA, or TTBB configurations of the traditional West-
ern choral repertory, many others go beyond this, calling for more vocal
lines and a more complex texture. An arrangement of Michael Jackson's
"Human Nature" by VoiceMale, a male group at Brandeis University,
features six background singers, one vocal percussionist, and the lead so-
loist. Members of VoiceMale take pride in the fact that each sings his own
part. "Itdoesn't take sixteen people to sing a four-note chord," the group's
music director told me, echoing a motto taught to him by a predecessor.41
 CollegiateA Cappella 485

That is, once singers are assigned to each necessary chord tone, the oth-
ers are better used to serve other functions, such as imitating instrumen-
tal riffs from the commercial recording. In VoiceMale's arrangement of
"Human Nature" (see ex. 1), which itself is based on a 2004 Boyz II Men
recording, four voices provide the basic chordal backing and rhythmic
texture (the "acoustic guitar" staves, abbreviated "Ac Gtr"),while another
sings the muted guitar's melodic interjections ("Muted Gtr").
By using more than four parts, the VoiceMale arrangement more ef-
fectively mimics the commercial recordings of "Human Nature." (Other
a cappella groups use this technique as well, even if more than one voice
sings each part.) Thus, rather than reducing or adapting a piece to the
standard choral medium as many traditional choral arrangements do, the
goal here is to create a vocal original by expanding the medium itself.

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Example1. MichaelJackson's"HumanNature,"verse.Arrangedby DrewCohen
for BrandeisUniveristyVoiceMale,2004.Author's transcriptionbased on field
recordingsfromNovember9, 2004.
486 Duchan

Syllables
One of the most distinctiveaspectsof collegiatea cappellaarrangements
is their vocables (called "syllables"by the singers). Beforethe 1990s,a
cappella groups drew on the familiarpalette of syllables from the glee
club,barbershop,and doo-wop. "Doo,""bum,""bop,""wah,"and open
vowels such as "ooo,""oh,"or "ah"were common. If the song's lyrics
suggested such opportunities, one might occasionally hear a walking
bass, a mimetic "beep-beep"of automobilehorns, or a momentaryim-
personationof brass. Much of the time, however, the ensemble would
sing together as a homophonic unit, harmonizing the song's melody.
For example, most of the twenty-two tracks on the Whiffenpoofs'LP,
TheWhiffenpoofs of 1958,featurehomophonicensemble singing, even on
arrangements that include a soloist. At times when soloists do stand out
fromthe ensemble,the backgroundsingers most often sing the syllables
"doo,""bum,"or open vowels. (Brassband mimicrycan be heardin the
Whiffenpoofs'recordingof Rodgers and Hart's"JohnnyOne Note.")
Throughoutthe 1980s,a cappellarecordingsincreasinglyseparatedthe
backgroundparts from the soloist, with fewer and shorterinstancesof
backgroundvoices harmonizingthe melody.Instead,backgroundvoices
more often functioned as accompaniment.The purely homorhythmic
texture of earlier recordsalso gave way to more complex rhythms,in-
cluding brokenchords called "bellchords,""pyramids,"or "cascades"
in barbershopparlance.42"Doo" and "ba"continued, however, as the
mainstays of syllable choice. For example, with the exception of one
track(a cover of MackGordonand HarryWarren's"ChattanoogaChoo-
Choo"),every song on the University of North CarolinaClef Hangers'
album Safari(1992)featuresat least one soloist while backgroundscon-
tinually use the syllables "doo"and "ba."
An importantstylisticshiftoccurredin the mid-1990s,as groupsbegan
using syllables with a j sound, such as "jun,""jin,""sjun,"in order to
more effectively emulate the sound of a guitar strum. It is unclearwho
used such syllables first, but "jun"or one of its variants first appears
on the Bestof CollegeA Cappellacompilationalbum'ssecond installment
(1996)on tracksrecordedin 1994 (the University of MichiganAmazin'
Blue'srecordingof Mr.Mister's"Kyrie")and 1995(the Universityof Vir-
ginia Gentlemen'srecordingof BillyPilgrim's"Insomniac"). VoiceMale's
"HumanNature,"arrangedin 2004,makes extensive use of this; sound
with its syllables"jig-gajig-ga"and "jen"(see ex. 1 above).Of course,the
spreadof "jun"was not immediate- as some groupsbeganusing the new
syllables, many others continued with the older syllables- and today's
groups have not abandonedthe more traditionalsyllable options.
When syllables are used to map an instrument's acoustical attack,
timbre, and decay onto a vocally produced sound, the result is some-
 CollegiateA Cappella 487

thing I call directemulation.Quick attacks,particularlythose of pianos,

areoften accomplishedwith a d sound, such as "dun,""dum,"or "den."
Slower attacks, like those of some guitars or synthesizers, might call
for a less percussive consonant, such as /, a "soft/" (fricative),or they
might simply begin with a vowel. The timbre of the syllable is deter-
mined by the vowel choice and its placement in the singers' mouths.
With its "hard/'" (affricative) syllables, VoiceMale's arrangement of
"HumanNature"maintains the sparse, percussive quality of the Boyz
II Men version, which relies heavily on plucked and strummed acous-
tic guitars with short decays. An arrangement of the same song by
the all-male Cornell University Hangovers creates a smoother texture
through the use of sustained chords in the background parts, which
directlyemulate the synthesizer sounds of the MichaelJacksonrecord-
ing. However, syllables are sometimes selected to capture or evoke a
"mood" or "feeling" rather than to emulate particular instruments.
This is what I call indirectemulation.By using unusual syllables, indi-
rectemulation maintainsan instrumentalfunction without mimicking
a specific instrumentalsound.43
On one hand, the increasinguse of /-based syllables, which directly
emulate a guitar,suggests a move away from versioning and closer to
covering. On the other, indirect emulation implies a greateremphasis
on versioning than on covering. Thus, the use of syllables in collegiate
a cappella practiceshows aspects of both types of musical recontextu-
alization.

Vocal Style

Collegiatea cappellasingersmake distinctchoicesregardingvocal style,

choicesthatcanrevealhow groupsconceiveand constructtheiridentities.
ThesingersI workedwith generallyavoid vibrato,preferringto sing with
a "straighttone" (sometimescalled a "flattone")while on background
parts."Vibratolocatesthe singerwithin a particularsocio-musicalfield,"
JohnPottersuggests. Rocksingers use it as a "cultivatedeffect because
of its associationwith classicalsinging," and "singersof more middle-
of-the-roadpop music will use a greateror lesser amount of vibratoac-
cordingto which end of the socio-musicalspectrumthey wish to identify
with."44Many singers I encountereduse a lack of vibratoto distinguish
themselvesand theirgroups fromchoirsand glee clubs they perceiveas
more "classical."They may also eschew vibrato because of its associa-
tion,in popularmusic,with pre-rocksingers(likeBingCrosbyand Frank
Sinatra)whose cultivated crooning style now sounds old-fashioned to
manyyoungeraudiences.And while Potterallows forsome use of vibrato
by pop singers,Averillnotes its completebanishmentfrombarbershop:
"Onerequirementforringingchordswas the avoidanceof vibrato(which
488 Duchan

would of course vary the pitch and derail any effort to lock the chord).
An articleon barbershopstyle once called vibrato'poison.'"45
For a cappella singers, the most important vocal concept is blend.
Blended voices are indistinguishable from one another. Like barber-
shoppers, the singers I consulted avoid vibrato because it inhibits a
group's ability to match tone quality and pitch. I was often told of the
value of a singer's ability to blend, and the use of vibrato was heav-
ily criticized in deliberations about new members.46Historical prec-
edents for a cappella's emphasis on blend can be found in the glee club
tradition (vis-a-vis the straight-tone technique of the early St. Olaf's
LutheranChoir),barbershop,the AfricanAmerican quartet tradition,
and doo-wop.47
VoiceMaleseeks a particularvocal style that hinges on a strong,loud,
intensetimbre.In songs like "HumanNature,"the singersavoid not only
vibratobut also falsetto.In my field recordingsof VoiceMale's"Human
Nature,"the singers "belt"(in chest voice) during the briefintroduction
and the chorus but not during the verse, when the listener's attention
focuses on the soloist. This structuraluse of belting (and volume) em-
phasizes passages during which the group,not the soloist, should be the
centerof attention.
One VoiceMalememberexplainedthe group'sstylisticpreference:"As
partof the power of the sound that we try to put out, we very rarelyput
anythingin falsetto.If you can hit it, unless it's supposed to be quiet, we
want it powerful,we want it out there."48 Anothermemberof VoiceMale
explained that they want to sound as loud, or louder, with their seven
membersas othergroupsdo with seventeen.49GivenVoiceMale'sidealof
one singer per part,it becomes clearthat in orderto achieve the desired
loud and intense sound while maintaininga balancebetween the parts,
each individual must sing confidently and loudly enough by himself.
No one else is covering his note; there is no safety in numbers.An un-
trainedfalsettois typicallyquieterthan a male voice in the belt range,so
avoiding falsetto makes sense. It also fits into the ethos of VoiceMale's
identity as projectedby their manner of vocal delivery. "Power"is the
key word, applying both to the singer's physical effortand to the iden-
tity he projects.As Simon Frithwrites, "Evenwhen treatingthe voice as
an instrument... it stands for the person more directlythan any other
musicaldevice."50Throughits performances,VoiceMalewants to project
masculinity,strength,even domination.
Not all groups shareVoiceMale'svocal style or intent.The Treblemak-
ers,a mixedgroupat BostonUniversity,prefera moremuted,morechoral
sound. It is unusualfor the group'stenorsto belt.Instead,they habitually
switch out of their chest voices and into falsettowhenever they have to
sing in theirupperrange.In October20041taughtthem my arrangement
of Maroon5's 2002 pop ballad, "SheWill Be Loved."During the song's
 CollegiateA Cappella 489

climacticfinal chorus,the tenorpart splits into two lines. The firsttenor

partis high, with sustainednotes on G4 and a momentaryA-flat4, and is
intendedto indirectlyemulatea distortedelectricguitarwailing farin the
background.It could have been sung by an alto, yet I wanted to hear the
strainin a tenor's voice, a sort of soaringgesture that would expand the
emotionalscope of the song as it enteredthe finalchorus.Butthe tenorsin
the Treblemakers preferred- and ultimatelychose- to sing the passagein
falsetto.Theyplacedthe sound forwardin theirvocal cavities,producing
a focused, pointed timbrethat came close to, but did not quite achieve,
the effectI wanted. One might surmise that the pitches were simply out
of the singers'range,yet in othersongs these same singerscould hit those
pitcheswith the timbreI sought- but only as soloists. This suggests that
it was theirpreference,not a necessity,to use the falsetto'slighter vocal
quality.In orderto blend properly,the Treblemakersavoided singing too
loudly or in a mannerthat would vary significantlyin timbrefrom that
of the rest of the group. Whatwas essentially a musical choice- how to
producevocal sounds within a particularpitch range- ended up follow-
ing a habitualpatternthat helped define the group's sound.
Vocal Percussion

"Vocalpercussion"refersto singersemulatingthe sounds of a drumset.51

The most basic vocal percussion mimics kick and snare drums. Sing-
ers usually emulate the kick drum with the syllables "doo"or "doom,"
placedlow in the vocal range.Theycommonlymakea snaredrumsound
with a "kh"or a "pf."These sounds, along with "ts"for hi-hatsand ride
cymbals,and "ksh"or "psh"for crash cymbals, can be combined with
rhythmicbreathinginto patternsthatapproximatethose played on a rock
kit.Evenif the sounds of vocalpercussion,when isolated,do not convinc-
ingly imitatethose of actualdrums,professionalvocal percussionistWes
Carrollexplained,they can still assume the functionof the drums when
they are performedin the right rhythmicpatterns.52
"Vocalpercussion"(sometimes abbreviatedas "VP"),"beatboxing,"
and other terms are often used interchangeably.Thereis some question
within the a cappella community about the relationship of vocal per-
cussion to beatboxingand other vocal techniquesthat aim to provide a
nonpitchedrhythm,such as "mouthdrumming"and "multivocalism." In
hip-hop,beatboxingmay be an integralpart of a cipher,a "streetperfor-
mative"in which a group of MCs,usually standingin a circle,take turns
improvisingrhymeswhile accompaniedby beatboxingor a prerecorded
beat.53When the question was posed on the RARB'sdiscussion forum,
one respondentcontrasteda cappellasinging with rap,a practicewithin
which vocalized percussivesounds have been a featuresince at least the
early 1970s.54He called a cappella's vocal percussion the "imitationof
490 Duchan

existing drum sounds" and rap's beatboxing the "artof creatingbeats

with one's voice,"regardlessof whether the sounds mimic extantdrums
(acousticor synthesized).55Another contributordrew the distinctionin
termsof timbre,with vocal percussion"brighter"because,when ampli-
fied, the microphoneis usually a short distance from the mouth (allow-
ing some sonic reflections to be picked up in addition to the primary
source sound), and beatboxing "darker"because practitionershold a
microphoneagainst their lips and cover the capsule with their hands.56
A thirdcontributornoted thatbeatboxing,while initiallyaccompanying
rap, has evolved into a solo or group art form.57This stands in contrast
to vocal percussion,which always accompaniesa groupof singers.Thus,
the differencesbetween these relatedtermsdepend both on the differing
sounds of the two practicesand their functionin the musical texture.
During performances, bodily gestures make clear the instruments
being imitated vocally, from "air-drums"to "air-guitars."It is espe-
cially common to see vocal percussionists make drumming gestures.
(See figures 2 and 3 for examples of instrumentalgestures in a cappella
performances.)Some performersbelieve that such bodily gestures ac-
tually improve the sound and make for more convincing performances
and recordings.58

Figure 2. Vocal percussion gestures (L).

New York University APC Rhythm at
Yale University, March 26, 2005. Photo
by the author.

Figure 3. Miming guitars, SUNY-Bing-

hamton Crosbys performing at Yale
University, March 26, 2005. Photo by
the author.
 CollegiateA Cappella 491

Texture

When a cappellaarrangersadapt a pop recordin an arrangement,they

usuallymaintaina lead-and-accompaniment texture.Thishelps to distin-
a
guish collegiate cappella frombarbershop glee clubswhile aligning
and
it with doo-wop.59In a cappellapractice,however,backgroundpartsuse
texturaland gestural devices to ensure that they remain simply "back-
ground."Certainarrangingtechniquesdraw attentionto the background
parts or to importantstructuralor harmonicmoments. They also pro-
vide varietyfor the singers themselves, who welcome such moments of
change.Afterall,most songs have only one soloist,so most singersspend
much of their time singing (often repetitive)backgroundparts.
One criticalbackgroundtechniqueis what VoiceMalecalls a "bell,"a
termderivedfrombarbershopthatdescribesthe effectof voices entering
in successionto forma chord.In "HumanNature,"the backgroundosti-
nato comprisesrhythmicallyidentical,but offset and overlapping,duets
(see ex. 1, "Ac Gtr"staves, above). Bells occur in the first and second
endings of the verse (ex. 1, mm. 7-8, 9-10) and mimic the guitar figures
in the Boyz II Men recording.These nearly identical two-measurepas-
sages functionas transitionsbetween the harmonicpatternsof the verse
(IV-V-I6)and the chorus(IV-V-I-V6-vi-V, beginningat "Why,"m. 11).They
also providea texturalchangefromoverlappinghomorhythmsto arpeg-
giated chords,signalinga formaltransitionand hinting at the upcoming
repeat of the verse (or the downbeat of the chorus). The rhythmicand
melodic shift from an ostinato to a transitionalfigure createsa moment
of interestas well as a challenge:interestbecausethereis somethingnew
to sing, and challengebecause these passages requireprecise rhythmic
coordinationand close listening. (Rehearsingthese bells often took the
betterpart of a two- or three-hourrehearsal.)

Originality in A Cappella
While emulation is an importantstylistic goal in collegiate a cappella,
many groups also strive to injectoriginalityinto their music, taking the
a cappella song beyond just "equal"to the commercialrecordingand
instead "surpassing"it. VoiceMale'suse of bells in the backgroundparts
of "HumanNature"is one example. That technique kept singers (and
listeners)interested,challenged, and happily engaged with the music.
But there are other techniquesthat achieve the same objective:musical
quotation,formalexpansion, texturalvariation,the sharing of melodic
materialacross voice parts, and a soloist's reinterpretationof a song's
lead, to name only the most common.The firsttwo techniquesexplicitly
change the song throughthe introductionof new musical material.The
492 Duchan

other three can be used in the pursuit of a cappella's overall emulative

goal or as ways to bring a new interpretationto a song. In addition, all
of these techniquescan have social implications.
Musicalquotationis a techniquefor referencingothersongs within an
arrangement.60 Sometimes other materialby the same recordingartist
is borrowed;an arrangermight use lyrics fromone song as background
syllables to anothersong. At othertimes he or she may quote an entirely
different musical source, with arrangementand source having only a
common harmonicframework.In their recordingof "LetMe Entertain
You,"recorded by British rocker Robbie Williams in 1997, VoiceMale
quotes Steppenwolf's 1968classic, "MagicCarpetRide."A second solo-
ist sings the Steppenwolf lyrics ("close your eyes girl, look inside girl,
let the sound take you away")while impersonatingthe raspy quality of
that song's lead. At the quotation'sintroduction,all backgroundrhyth-
mic activity ceases, allowing the listener to focus entirely on the Step-
penwolf interpolationwith a backingof blockchords.Thenthe Williams
song's refrain("let me entertainyou") returnsin the primarysoloist's
voice while the Steppenwolf lyrics continue more quietly as a featured
harmony line. The result is not a Williams-Steppenwolfmedley, but a
brief referenceto the second song that folds into the fabricof the first.
The prevalenceof musical allusions in collegiate a cappella suggests
not only the playfulnessof the genrebut also an appreciationof intertex-
tuality'scomplexity.Whetheror not the audience recognizesthe quota-
tion and appreciatesits significancedepends partly on how apparentit
is, on whether it is executed by a soloist (makinga direct and apparent
association with the secondary song) or only within the background
parts (remaining"insiderknowledge,"a feat of musical fusion of which
the singers, themselves, are proud but that remains mostly hidden to
listeners).
A related technique is the changing of a song's form by adding new,
ratherthan borrowed,musical material.Forexample, an arrangerfrom
Amazin' Blue added a new, quasi-scat section to the Sting song "If I
Ever Lose My Faith in You"that features the group without a soloist.
Each backgroundpart enters separately,as if announcing not only its
presence but also its independence from the other parts. So doing, this
techniquefeaturesthe backgroundsingers for a musicalmomentbefore
returningto the song's original form and focus on the soloist. Also, by
basing this new section on the cyclic iii-i progressionof the song's coda
and by avoiding the introduction of new lyrics, this technique allows
the formal expansion to emerge from the song organicallyratherthan
seem imposed from the outside.
Unexpected textural variations reveal flashes of originality because
they disrupt the relationshipbetween the lead and its accompaniment.
 CollegiateA Cappella 493

Since the 1990s,the a cappella style has drawn a fundamental distinc-

tion between the role of lead soloist and background singer through
the articulationof words: the former may do so, while the latter usu-
ally does not. One potent technique used to create textural variation
is the sparing but striking use of the whole group as a homophonic
choir.After spending most of a song singing instrumentallyfunction-
ing backgroundsyllables, having the entire group explode, fortissimo,
with dense harmoniesalong with the soloist, singing the same lyrics at
the same time, creates a dramaticstatement.61The effect weakens the
lead/accompaniment dichotomy and affectsthe song's narrativeforce.
No longer does the lead singer carrythe lyrical content alone. Instead,
his or her voice is now, in effect, as powerful as the group's combined
voices. This "momentarychoir"techniqueis prevalentin the a cappella
repertory,though related variation techniques also abound: passages
duringwhich the basses drop out (leadingto a distinctchange in texture
and the opportunity to make a musical event out of the bass section's
return)and othermomentsof markedcontrastbetween polyphonic and
homophonic passages, to name two examples.
Singersvalue passages in which two or more parts sing parallelme-
lodic lines or when they coordinate,often antiphonally,to createa single
melodic line. Considersuch a melodic exchangeduring the "instrumen-
tal" section of the Treblemakers'arrangementof Rufus Wainwright's
"InstantPleasure"(see ex. 2). The altos begin with the guitar-emulating
melody ("bairner ner . . .") which is answered a measure later with an
arpeggio articulatedby the tenors,altos, and sopranos.After this figure
repeats, the harmony changes (from I-V-IVto the double-plagal I-flat
VH-IV-flatIll-flatVII6-I)and the tenors seize the melody before the so-
pranos finish the phrase. Creating a single melodic line fosters visual
and aural communicationand, of course, enhances the performance's
social dimension.
Finally,the personal prerogativeof the soloist offers a prime vehicle
for originality.He or she need not simply imitate the recordingartist's
performance(although,as I have said, some fidelity to the commercial
recordingis fundamentalto a cappella'semulative goal). Smallmelodic
or timbral- or even visual- variationsallow soloists to give their per-
formance"itsown personality,"as one singer fromCompany B put it.62
This idea aligns with GeorgePlaskete'swriting on the process of cover-
ing, which he describesas an "adaptation,in which much of the value
lies in the artists'interpretation."In this recontextualization,"Measuring
the interpreter'sskill, in part, lies in how well the artist uncovers and
conveys the spirit of the original, enhances the nuances of its melody,
rhythm,phrasing,or structure,maybe adding a new arrangement,sense
of occasion or threadof irony."63
494 Duchan

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lw>iii Vh^mii tHK»rrv HiH>mbH^ofii t^H>mVh^hmtx^im hnn^ni tn^irn Ih^tti Wn*rntv>oni tux^m H<h>iii Iwm tvnirrtHt^on^

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V 8^ • ^ 2 j ^,_ m t-^;.^^^--* «U J-j^A%
bj?**:-; f J J r~l 1^'"^^" f ^~f» . -1

Example 2. Rufus Wainwright's "Instant Pleasure," instrumental section. Ar-

ranged for the Boston University Treblemakers by Dave Ransom. Note: the top
staff contains additional harmonies.

Beyond Emulationand Originality:

Social Motivationsfor Stylistic Goals
Whatmotivatescollegiatea cappella'sstylisticgoals?Partof the answer
lies in the socialimplications
of the musical choices arrangersand singers
make.Whileemulationand originality,and coveringand versioning,en-
tailparticulartechniques,much of the music'smeaningalso derivesfrom
the ways in which singers and audiences experiencethose techniques.
Emulatingpopular recordingsand quoting one song within another
give audiences something familiar.But how each a cappella group de-
 CollegiateA Cappella 495

ploys familiarmaterialhelps to determine its success in performance.

In the crowded arenaof student activities,a cappella groups must com-
pete with each other (and with other student clubs) for resources,both
financial and human. A repertory of covers also constrains and con-
ventionalizes expression: the audience already knows how the song
goes, so the thrill comes from how the group will do it in a new, vocal-
only medium. Moreover,a song performed by an a cappella group is
often not immediately recognizable based on the first few measures
of its introduction(as, admittedly,may also be the case with the origi-
nal commercialrecording).Typicallyaudience members may have to
wait a few seconds until a recognizablemelodic, harmonic,or rhythmic
snippet- the song's hook, perhaps- is sung before recognizing which
song is actually being performed. (In my research,concert programs
only rarelylisted the titles of the songs to be performed.Recognitionis
thereforebased entirely on aural perception.) In performance,then, a
cappella groups enable a pleasurable sense of discovery as audiences
identify familiarsongs.64
Although some groups collect dues from their members, ticket and
albumsales make up the bulk of most groups' revenues (in my research,
most groups rarely found their school administrationsto be sufficient
sourcesof funding). Sales thus become the main enablersof the group's
music duplication,travelexpenses, futureconcerts,and recordingproj-
ects. Especiallyon campuses where a cappella thrives, the perception
of a diluted talent pool as well as a heightened intergroupcompetition
intensifiesthe searchfor new singers.A group must ensureits continued
survival and success by attractingand trainingshow-stopping soloists,
skilled arrangers,and future leaders through its performances.Every
time it performsa popular or familiarsong, or quotes another song in
an arrangement,it not only shows off the skills of its arrangers,but also
createsan opportunityfor connectionwith potential members.
Many of the techniques a cappella groups use to add originality to
theirmusic also function"democratically"to sharethe spotlight among
multiplesingers.A cappellais a voluntaryactivity,and membershave to
feel valued in orderto participate.As one singer told me, "you can sing
doo's and da's only so long before it stops feeling fulfilling."65When a
group "gives"a memberthe spotlight (e.g., a solo), the other singers be-
lieve that that memberhas the best voice for that song or part and have
confidencein his or her ability to execute it successfully on theirbehalf.
Most groups determineeach song's lead soloist by holding internalau-
ditions, judged by those membersnot auditioning. In some groups, an
importantfactorin this auditionprocessis whetherany of the candidates
sing solos on other songs in the group's repertory(or if any do notsing
othersolos). SimonFrith'smetonymictreatmentof the voice/instrument
as the person is instructivehere. Witha shareof the spotlight comes the
496 Duchan

social implicationthat the individual's voice is important- not only as

a singing voice but as a person.
The value that a cappella singers place on the individual voice, and
the identity implied by that voice, also speaks to the sociability of the
musicalpractice.By presentingseveral individuals as soloists, an a cap-
pella group can access a largersocial network in its audience.As Voice-
Male's music directorexplained:"Ifeverybody has a solo, the audience
gets to feel like they've met everybody,and that's a betterperformance.
Thatmakes them feel closer to you than if two people aresinging all the
solos and the rest of the guys arejust faceless,nameless guys in the back
singing 'doo-wop, doo-wop.'"66And while featuringeach memberin a
group'sperformanceaccesseseach individual'ssocial networkand thus
betterssales of ticketsand albums, it also enables the accumulationand
display of social capitalby singers.
Theeconomicsof time also play an importantrole.Likeearlierstudent
vocal ensembles, a cappella groups are active components of campus
musicallife. They sing at many of the same officialfunctionsas did their
predecessors,fostering a broadersense of school spirit. But each singer
has many otherobligations- academicand social commitments,family
needs, religiouspractice,and so forth.These activitiesmay conflictwith
those related to a cappella, such as arranging,rehearsing,performing,
business correspondence,and the maintenanceof proper relationships
with other campus groups, funding sources, and the college adminis-
tration.When I asked singers what they gained from their experience
in an a cappella group, the most common answer, after the creationof
community,was better time-managementskills.
One might thinkof a cappellaparticipationas a cost-and-rewardsphe-
nomenon, implying a sort of psychologicalledger by which individuals
determinewhether they are sufficientlysatisfied with their experience.
RobertA. Stebbinstakes this approachto barbershopsinging and finds
the prominentrewardsto be personalenrichment,the enjoymentof sing-
ing, and self-actualization;the most common costs are disappointments
in competitions,dislikeof groupleadership,and frustrationwith varying
levels of commitmentamong othersingers.67Theseconclusionsapply to
a cappella,but as an explanatorytool this calculationmust be more nu-
anced. For each individual- whether he or she stays with the group or
leaves it- the weights of the various costs and rewardsdiffer.Perhaps
more than other factors, the sharing of the spotlight (and the implied
value of individual voices) strongly affectsa cappellasingers'decisions
to remainwith a group.
But sharing the spotlight also allows singers to tap into the powerful
culturalarchetypeof the "rockstar"- a figure with considerablesocial
capital (especiallyin youth culture).Formany,a cappellais simply fun;
there is a certain pleasure in the creation of a virtuosic or spectacular
 CollegiateA Cappella 497

vocal-only rendition of a familiar musical icon. But beneath the pleasure

of performance may lie the process Simon Frith and R. J. Warren Zanes
call "identification." This occurs when a fan (or fanatic) either desires
the popular artist or desires to be the popular artist and then enacts that
desire through mimicry.68As one a cappella singer told me:

Every girl secretly wants to be like Britney Spears. You see someone
dance - and I'm not saying risque - but you see someone be so con-
fident and dance like that and sing and really belt it out, and have
so much energy, and you're just like, "I want to be like that." And,
"if I join that group, I will be."69
The vocal techniques and bodily gestures that singers perform facilitate
identification. They enable the singer to assume a rock star's persona or
to act like the rock star playing his or her instrument. Moreover, through
direct emulation, syllables and gestures enable the singer to be the rock
star's instrument.
Collegiate a cappella is founded on the act of recontextualizing com-
mercial recordings in a vocal medium. Many of a cappella's stylistic
goals build on this foundation. Both emulation and originality (com-
bined with social needs and opportunities) shape collegiate a cappella's
distinctive sound. A cappella thus steers a narrow path between two
forms of musical mimicry that Weinstein describes: "covers" (iterations
of particular performances) and "versions" (iterations of the underlying
composition).
At the same time, a cappella challenges that dichotomy because it
emulates particular performances of songs (recordings) while simultane-
ously denying the very instruments used in those performances. On one
hand, it may be simple to say that a cappella consists more of versions
than of covers. Yet when an a cappella group strives to recreate aspects
of a particular recording - such as VoiceMale's arrangement of "Human
Nature," whose guitar lines appear in the Boyz II Men version of the
Michael Jackson song but not in Jackson's recording - a Weinsteinian
view would describe the group as aspiring to a cover. On the other hand,
some techniques of originality, such as interplay between background
parts or ^interpretations of the lead melody, seem to distinguish an a
cappella song from a cover. Yet because they alter basic building blocks
of the piece, other common techniques of originality, such as musical
quotation and formal expansion, undermine the case for a cappella as
version. Clearly the categories break down in this relatively recent and
so far little-discussed genre.
While popular recordings certainly underlie the a cappella repertory,
the cover/version dichotomy, or other schemes that separate the act of
musical recontextualization by reference or intention, cannot adequately
describe the a cappella approach to making music. More important, such
498 Duchan

theoreticaldistinctions fail to account for the social aspects of musical

practice.I have highlighted severalof these, each with musicalramifica-
tions:featuringfamiliarrepertoryand multiplesoloists,fosteringa sense
of musical community and self-worth,and presentingopportunitiesto
accumulateand display socialcapital.Thecaseof collegiatea cappella- a
genre to which more criticalattentionwill need to be paid as time goes
on- demonstratessome of the ways social considerationsaffectmusical
choices and, ultimately,determine the music's meaning.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Earlier drafts of this article were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Ameri-
can Music in March 2005, at the Midwest chapter meeting of the American Musicological
Society in October 2005, and in my dissertation. I am grateful to Judith Becker, Richard
Crawford, Mark Clague, James Wierzbicki, and Albin Zak, along with the anonymous
reviewers, for their guidance, critique, and suggestions during the writing process. I must
also thank the musicians with whom I worked, including the members of Brandeis Uni-
versity Company B and VoiceMale, the Boston University Treblemakers, the Harvard
University Fallen Angels, the University of Michigan Amazin' Blue, and the University
of Pennsylvania Counterparts for sharing their lives, thoughts, and music with me. Of
course, I retain full responsibility for any inaccuracy of representation.

NOTES

1. For example: Kurt Eichewald, "'Doo-Wop-a-Doo' Will No Longer Do," New YorkTimes,
June 22, 1997, sec. 2, p. 32; Karen W. Arenson, "Songsters Off on a Spree: Campuses Echo
with the Sound of Enthusiastic A Cappella Groups," New YorkTimes,April 25, 2002, El, 4;
"Profile: Yale's A Cappella Groups Rush Current Crop of Freshmen," NPR RadioMorning
Edition,Sept. 9, 2002; "A Cappella Frenzy," CBS News SundayMorning, Jan. 11, 2004; Rachel
Baker, "These Are the Biggest Studs On Campus?," Boston Magazine, February 2007. The
estimate of a thousand groups comes from the CBS News story.
2. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), s.v.
"emulation."
3. On barbershop, see Lynn Abbott, "Tlay That Barber Shop Chord': A Case for the
African-American Origin of Barbershop Harmony," AmericanMusic 10, no. 3 (1992):289-325;
Gage Averill, Four Parts, No Waiting:A Social History of AmericanBarbershopHarmony(New
York:Oxford University Press, 2003); Liz Garnett, "Ethics and Aesthetics: The Social Theory
of Barbershop Harmony," PopularMusic 18, no. 1 (1999):41-61, and TheBritishBarbershopper:
A Study in Socio-MusicalValues(Burlington, Vt: Ashgate, 2005); Max Kaplan, ed., Barbershop-
ping: Musical and Social Harmony (Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
1993); Richard Mook, "The Sounds of Liberty: Nostalgia, Masculinity, and Whiteness in
Philadelphia Barbershop, 1900-2003," Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
2004; and Robert A. Stebbins, TheBarbershopSinger:Insidethe Social Worldof a Musical Hobby
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996). Barbershop quartet singing does have a pres-
ence on college campuses, and is supported by the Barbershop Harmony Society (formerly
SPEBSQSA) through its national competition, the MBNA America Collegiate Barbershop
Quartet Contest, founded in 1990. In my field research,however, I found barbershop quartets
largely absent from the music scenes of the colleges at which I worked.
 Collegiate A Cappella 499

4. On doo-wop, see Stuart L. Goosman, "The Black Atlantic: Structure, Style, and Values
in Group Harmony/' BlackMusic ResearchJournal17, no. 1 (1997): 81-99; Anthony J. Gribin
and Matthew M. Schiff, Doo-Wop:TheForgottenThirdof Rock'n Roll (Iola, Wis.: Krause, 1992);
Philip Groia, TheyAll Sang on the Corner:New YorkCity's Rhythmand Blues VocalGroupsof
the 1950s (Setauket, N.Y.: Edmond Publishing Co., 1974); and Robert Pruter, Doowop: The
ChicagoScene (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996).
5. Little scholarly work has been done on the history of college glee clubs or their con-
temporary manifestations, although the topic receives some attention in Christopher Bruhn,
"Taking the Private Public: Amateur Music-Making and the Musical Audience in 1860s
New York/' AmericanMusic 21, no. 3 (2003): 260-90; Ellistine Perkins Holly, "Black Concert
Music in Chicago, 1890 to the 1930s," BlackMusic ResearchJournal10, no. 1 (1990): 141^19;
and Walter Raymond Spalding, Music at Harvard:A HistoricalReviewof Men and Events(New
York:Coward-McCann, 1935). For a recent first-person account of the college glee club, see
Bruce Montgomery, Brothers,Sing On!: My Half-CenturyAround the Worldwith the Venn Glee
Club (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).
6. David Horn, "Some Thoughts on the Work in Popular Music," in The Musical Work:
Realityor Invention?,ed. Michael Talbot (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000), 30.
7. Deena Weinstein, "The History of Rock's Pasts through Rock Covers," in Mapping the
Beat:PopularMusic and ContemporaryTheory,ed. Thomas Swiss, John Sloop, and Andrew
Herman (Maiden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1988), 138.
8. Serge Lacasse, "Intertextuality and Hypertextuality in Recorded Popular Music," in
TheMusical Work,ed. Talbot, 46. Some forms of covering would fall into Lacasse's category
of "hypertextuality," which is defined as "practices which aim at producing a new text
out of a previous one" (37).
9. This article deals with arranging and performance practice from the perspective of
collegiate a cappella practitioners. It does not address recording, a process in which both
emulation and originality play a key role. For more on a cappella recording practice,
see Joshua S. Duchan, "Powerful Voices: Performance and Interaction in Contemporary
Collegiate A Cappella," (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2007), 119-22,
243-301. The subject of arranging has borne a sizable library of instructional texts, par-
ticularly from the perspectives of orchestration, choral arranging, and jazz, many of which
draw heavily on the Western classical tradition for their principles and examples. See, for
example, Glenn Miller, Glenn Miller's Methodfor OrchestralArranging (New York:Mutual
Music Society, 1943); Hawley Ades, ChoralArranging (Delaware Gap, Pa.: Shawnee Press,
Inc., 1966); and David Baker, Arranging and Composingfor the Small Ensemble:Jazz, R&B,
Jazz-Rock(Chicago: Maher, 1970). Scholarly perspectives on arranging can be found, for
example, in Evelyn Howard-Jones, "Arrangements and Transcriptions," Music & Letters
16 (1935): 305-11; Norman Carrell, Bach the Borrower(London: Allen and Unwin, 1967);
Hans Keller, "Arrangement For or Against?," Musical Times110, no. 1511 (1969): 22-25; and
Millan Sachania, "'Improving the Classics': Some Thoughts on the 'Ethics' and Aesthetics
of Musical Arrangement," The Music Review 55, no. 1 (1994): 58-75.
10. Those capacities include arranger, performer, director, producer, and competition
adjudicator. My introduction to collegiate a cappella came in high school, when a group
visiting from Northwestern University conducted a clinic with the school choir and gave
a brief after-school concert. I joined a mixed group as a sophomore in college and another
during my graduate studies. I then conducted ethnographic fieldwork during the 2004-5
academic year with groups in the Boston area (primarily with Brandeis University Voice-
Male, the Boston University Treblemakers, and the Harvard University Fallen Angels),
consisting of observations and interviews, as well as some participation and coaching.
11. Although the topic of collegiate a cappella remains off the musicological map, it
has been well covered by undergraduate and graduate students in term papers and
theses. Those that I have been able to locate include: Judah Cohen, "'Beautiful Stories,
500 Duchan

Told in Some Very Melodic Ways': An Ethnography of Under Construction, Harvard-

Radcliffe's Christian A Cappella Singing Group/' (graduate ethnomusicology paper,
Harvard University, Cambridge, 1997); Jason Chua, "Wolverine Vocals: Detailing the
History, Function, and Racial Homogeneity of A Cappella Groups in the University of
Michigan," (undergraduate musicology paper, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2005);
Ben Jackson, "Vocal Percussion: A Phonetic Description," (bachelor's thesis, Harvard
University, Cambridge, 2001); Mark Manley, "ROOM ZERO: The Dialectical Worlds of
Live Performance and the Recording Studio in Collegiate A Cappella," (bachelor's thesis,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 2002); Jane Alexander Mclntosh, "In Harmony: A
Look at the Growth of Collegiate A Cappella Groups and the Future of the Movement,"
(master's thesis, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, 1999); Rebecca Rei-
man, (untitled undergraduate anthropology paper, Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass.,
2005); Veronica L. S. Robinson, "University of Michigan A Cappella Group Pre-Concert
Traditions," (undergraduate folklore paper, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2005);
Stacey Street, "Voices of Womanhood: Gender Ideology and Musical Practice in American
Women's Vocal Groups," (bachelor's thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1990); and
Jack Wilkinson, (untitled music thesis, bachelor's thesis, Bowdoin College, 2005).
12. Alan Clark Buechner, YankeeSinging Schoolsand the GoldenAge of ChoralMusic in New
England, 1760-1800 (Boston: Boston University Scholarly Publications, 2003), 108-9.
13. Richard Kegerreis, "The Handel Society of Dartmouth," American Music 4, no. 2
(1986): 177-93. The Handel Society was formed after visit to the college by psalmody re-
former Andrew Law. Its petition for recognition states that the Society sought "to improve
and cultivate the taste and promote true and genuine music" through a European repertory
(quoted in ibid., 178).
14. Spalding, Music at Harvard, 39-109; Michael Broyles, "Music of the Highest Class":
Elitism and Populism in Antebellum Boston (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 130.
15. Marshall Bartholomew, "The First 100 Years, 1861-1961: A Short History of the Yale
Glee Club," unpublished manuscript, Marshall Bartholomew Papers, MSS 24, Box 3, Folder
1, Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale University.
16. Spalding, Music at Harvard, 54, 120. Boston critic John Sullivan Dwight praised its
first performance, on June 9, 1858, for its "admirable blending, light and shade, etc." ("Col-
lege Music," Dwight's Journalof Music, June 19, 1858, quoted in Spalding, Music at Harvard,
76-77).
17. The History of the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club, available on the UMMGC
website (http://www.umich.edu/~ummgc) (n.p., 2003), accessed Nov. 11, 2005, 1; Spald-
ing, Music at Harvard, 131. Spalding, along with Jon Newsom's article on Davison in The
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (s.v. "Davison, A. T"), credits Davison with
introducing "serious music" to the Harvard Glee Club, and to American college choral
societies more generally.
18. Marshall Bartholomew, "Singing for the Fun of It,"unpublished manuscript, Marshall
Bartholomew Papers, MSS 24, Box 4, Folder 1, 163A, Irving S. Gilmore Music Library,Yale
University. Groups at Yale from the 1840s and later in the nineteenth century included the
Cecilias, the Beethoven Bummers (a play on the more serious Beethoven Society), the Owls,
the Four Sharps, the Midnight Caterwaulers, and the Theologians.
19. The Black Sheep (also known as the Six Little Lambs) sang briefly at Yale around the
turn the twentieth century, followed by the Growlers, a group whose membership included
singers who would later found the Whiffenpoofs. The group's name refers to comedian
Joseph Cawthorne's performance in the Broadway production of Victor Herbert's Little
Nemo (1908), during which he mused about catching a "whiffenpoof fish." For more on the
Whiffenpoofs, see Richard Nash Gould, Yale1900-2001, vol. 2, The Whiffenpoofs:Twentieth
Century (New York: The Twentieth Century Project, LLC, 2004), and James M. Howard,
"An Authentic Account of the Founding of the Whiffenpoofs," printed in the booklet, "A
 CollegiateA Cappella 501

History of the Whiffenpoofs of Yale University and a Roster of Membership: Prepared for
the 85th Anniversary Celebration, April 29-May 1, 1994, New Haven, Connecticut," in RU
156, Ascension 2000-A-044, Box 1, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University.
20. For example, in Four Parts, No Waiting, Averill discusses barbershop's practice of
"collective audition/' in which bodily and social relationships intersect (p. 178). In "Ethics
and Aesthetics: The Social Theory of Barbershop Harmony," Garnett examines barbershop-
pers' concept of harmony as a metaphor for social cohesion, an egalitarian ideal, and the
performance of "maximum inclusiveness," and in The British Barbershoppershe explores
the social effects of barbershop competitions and behavioral codes (pages 43, 50, 59-62,
75-78). Both scholars also consider the social implications of the concept of blend.
21. Gould calls the Whiffenpoofs' style from 1909-49 the "barbershop style." It was
marked by four-part arrangements, relatively few solos, and musical sources such as vaude-
ville, burlesque, college songs, and spirituals. As with barbershop practice, the melody
line was most often in the second tenor part, and harmonies and rhythms were of rather
simple and straightforward construction. Gould, The Whiffenpoofs:TwentiethCentury, 65.
22. The Mills Brothers, from Piqua, Ohio, consisted of brothers Herbert (1912-89), Harry
(1913-1982), Donald (b. 1915), and John Mills, Jr. (1911-35). Although secularized, their
style drew on a longstanding tradition of black religious vocal music stretching at least
as far back as the jubilee choruses of the mid-nineteenth century and later popular gospel
quartets (such as the Golden Gate Quartet). They began singing together about 1922 and
in 1929 became the first black ensemble to receive official commercial sponsorship by a
major network, CBS. Among their early successes was a version of the Original Dixieland
Jazz Band's "Tiger Rag," which they recorded multiple times in October 1931 and again in
1932 for the soundtrack to the film The Big Broadcast(1932); the recordings appear on The
Mills Brothers:Chronological,Vol. 1 (London: JSP Records, JSPCD 301, 1988). "Tiger Rag"
features a tuba-like bass tone and a remarkably convincing vocalized muted trumpet. As
proof of just how convincing their instrumental imitations were, the label of their early
recordings read: "no musical instruments or mechanical devices used on this recording
other than one guitar" (Geoff Milne, liner notes to The Mills Brothers:Chronological,vol.
1). For more on the Mills Brothers, see Mitch Rosalsky, Encyclopediaof Rhythm and Blues
and Doo-Wop VocalGroups (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2000), 397; and Eileen South-
ern, The Music of BlackAmericans:A History, 3rd ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), 51.
Another early example of vocal imitations of instrumental sounds is the German sextet
the Comedian Harmonists. Active in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the group inspired a
feature film, ComedianHarmonists(1997). For more information on the ensemble, see Peter
Czada and Giinter Grosse, ComedianHarmonists:Ein Vokalensembleerobertdie Welt (Berlin:
Edition Hentrich, 1993); for analyses of the film, see Lutz Koepnick, "Refraining the Past:
Heritage Cinema and the Holocaust in the 1990s," New GermanCritique87 (2002): 47-82,
and "'Honor Your German Masters': History, Memory, and National Identity in Joseph
Vilsmaier's ComedianHarmonists (1997)," in Light Motives: New Directions in GermanFilm
Studies, ed. Margaret McCarthy and Randall Halle (Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
2003), 349-75.
23. Also notable is Todd Rundgren's 1985 album, A Capella(WarnerBros. 9251281), which,
like McFerrin's work, was recorded entirely a cappella using extensive multitracking. The
album reached number 128 on the Billboard Top 200, far below the spots reached by Joel's,
McFerrin's, and Boyz II Men's recordings.
24. The chart in figure 1 is based on survey data I collected between January 2006 and
January 2007 in an attempt to determine the number of collegiate a cappella groups in
existence, their schools and founding dates, and whether they were male, female, or mixed
ensembles. The survey included groups mostly in the United States as well as a few in
Canada and the United Kingdom. It was decidedly unscientific and I make no claim to
its statistical validity. I began with an old directory supplied by Don Goodine (of the
502 Duchan

Mainely A Cappella company), which itself was based on contact lists compiled by Deke
Sharon and the Tufts University Beelzebubs in the early 1990s. I then consulted one of
the largest on-line directories (http://www.collegeacappella.com) and the "Acapedia"
administered by the Contemporary A Cappella Society on its website (http://www.casa.
org) to verify as much information as possible. When links were provided, I followed
them to groups' websites, which often contained relevant data. In cases where I could not
verify a group's existence, I did not add it to Gooding's and Sharon's original lists. This
process of information-gathering, and my own recollections of names and anecdotes from
my field research, comprised the primary method of data collection; it would have been
impractical to contact each group directly to verify the data.
25. As the Men's Octet (University of California at Berkeley, 1948), the Virginia Gentlemen
(University of Virginia, 1953), and the Mendicants (Stanford University, 1962) demonstrate,
a cappella groups did exist elsewhere, but not with the same geographic concentration as
in the northeast.
26. The parenthetical question mark in "Spizzwinks(?)" is in fact part of the group's
name. According to the group's history, the parenthetical mistakenly accompanied the
name the first time it appeared in print in the Yale Banner in 1914. Amused, the group
decided to retain it. (Spizzwinks(?) website, history page, http://www.yale.edu/spiz-
zwin/ history/, accessed Sept. 6, 2007.)
27. James A. Keene, A History of Music Education in the United States (Hanover, N.H.:
University Press of New England, 1982), 319-28. See also Leonard Van Camp, "The Rise
of American Choral Music and the A Cappella 'Bandwagon,'" Music EducatorsJournal67,
no. 3 (1980): 36^0.
28. Keene, History of Music Education,353-63. See also Michael L. Mark and Charles L.
Gary, A History of AmericanMusic Education(New York:Schirmer, 1992), 364-65.
29. "The Tanglewood Declaration," Music EducatorsJournal54, no. 3 (1967): 51.
30. For a detailed report on the Institute, see Wiley L. Housewright, Emmett R. Sarig,
Thomas MacCluskey, and Allan Hughes, "YouthMusic: A Special Report," Music Educators
Journal56, no. 3 (1969): 43-74.
31. The two remaining Ivy League schools were coeducational much earlier: Cornell
University was coed from its founding in 1865 (although female students did not enroll
until 1872), while the University of Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1740, became
coed in 1876.
32. The College Board website, http://www.collegeboard.com (accessed March 2, 2007).
The College Board administers the SAT and other college entrance exams, and provides
high school students with information regarding colleges and universities.
33. ContemporaryA CappellaNewsletter2, no. 4 (April 1992): 13. The documentary's sound-
track was inducted into the Contemporary A Cappella Society's Contemporary A Cappella
Recording Awards "hall of fame" for its demonstration of "the richness of a cappella's
past and the vitality of its future to a completely new audience If we had to pick one
album to represent contemporary a cappella to someone who's never heard a note," the
editor wrote, "this would be the one." When it was founded, CASA served mostly college
groups and adopted Sharon's CollegeA CappellaNewsletter,first published in October 1990,
as its organ. The Society quickly expanded its purview to include semiprofessional and
professional a cappella groups, and in 1990 the newsletter was renamed the Contemporary
A CappellaNewsletter.Selected issues are available on the Contemporary A Cappella Society
website: http://www.casa.org.
34. The Recorded A Cappella Review Board's website can be found at: http://www.
rarb.org. Recording engineer Bill Hare emphasized the importance of the Internet in a cap-
pella's growth: "While people like Deke [Sharon], Don [Gooding], and myself were doing
pioneering things independently of each other, I cannot stress enough the role that the
invention and use of the Internet had during this time, several years after our independent
 Collegiate A Cappella 503

groundwork. If it weren't for this new form of instant information gathering, most groups
would have remained islands unto themselves - I know the Stanford groups for the most
part didn't know there were any other groups out there before this time. In a way, Deke
invented the original intergroup net by trying to put together a database of the other groups
out there, using telephone and written correspondence - I was really impressed when I got
a letter from this kid Deke Sharon in Boston who had heard my work with the Mendicants
from all the way over in California" (personal communication, Feb. 14, 2007).
35. The BOCA albums are available for purchase online through A-Cappella.com:
http://www.a-cappella.com.
36. Julia Barnathan and Lianna Levine, Brandeis University Company B,, personal in-
terview, Oct. 2, 2004 (hereafter Barnathan and Levine interview).
37. It is worth noting that, throughout my research, I never observed a cappella musi-
cians discussing their music in terms of authenticity. However, the term's prevalence in the
scholarly literature on popular music testifies to its utility when examining the ideologies
behind musical practices. See, for example, Simon Frith, /y/TheMagic That Can Set You
Free':The Ideology of Folk and the Myth of the Rock Community," PopularMusic 1 (1981):
159-68; Steve Redhead and John Street, "Have I the Right?: Legitimacy, Authenticity and
Community in Folk's Politics," PopularMusic 8, no. 2 (1989): 177-84; Motti Regev, "Israeli
Rock, or a Study in the Politics of 'Local Authenticity'," PopularMusic 11, no. 1 (1992): 1-14;
Sara Cohen, "Identity, Place, and the 'Liverpool Sound,'" in Ethnicity, Identity,and Music:
TheMusical Constructionof Place,ed. Martin Stokes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994),
117-34; David Brackett,InterpretingPopularMusic (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1995), 75-107; Allan F. Moore, Rock:The Primary Text:Developing a Musicology of Rock,2nd
ed. (Burlington, Vt: Ashgate, 2001); and Aaron Fox, Real Country:Music and Language in
WorkingClass Culture (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004).
38. Anna Callahan, Anna's Amazing A CappellaArrangingAdvice:TheCollegiateA Cappella
ArrangingManual (Southwest Harbor, Maine: Contemporary A Cappella Publishing, 1995),
1, 20, 39. "Transanging" is Callahan's term; only once in my field work did an a cappella
participant use it.
39. James Harrington, posted in the discussion forum of the Recorded A Cappella Review
Board (RARB) (http://www.rarb.org) (topic: "a theory about imitative arrangements"),
Sept. 27, 2004.
40. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a standardized format in
which computers and other digital instruments can share musical information. MIDI files
contain instructions for computers to synthesize a song and can be imported into most
music notation software.
41. Drew Cohen, Brandeis University VoiceMale, personal interview, Oct. 5, 2004 (here-
after Cohen interview).
42. A "bell chord" is an arranging technique whereby four voices enter in succession to
create a chord, each voice ringing like a bell. Related terms include "cascade" (all voices
begin in unison and while the highest voice maintains its pitch, the others descend in
succession to their chord tones) and "pyramid" (a bell chord that builds from the lowest
voice/pitch). Definitions for many barbershop terms (such as "bell chord") can be found
in the glossary for Averill, Four Parts, No Waiting, 205-10.
43. A former VoiceMale member credits the group's uncommon and inventive syllables
to the ethnic and linguistic diversity of its arrangers: one was from Israel, while another
was from India. He offered the syllabic combination "kin-diddle-ray-doh, kin-doh-doh-
diddle-rai" as an example. "Nobody thinks of that kind of stuff," he said, "if you're think-
ing in English." Such syllabic combinations are valuable and creative because they do not
directly mimic any particular instrument and because they are unfamiliar to listeners'
ears. Here, syllable choice is motivated by a desire to distinguish the group's sound from
that of other vocal and choral ensembles, including other campus groups. Eli Schneider,
504 Duchan

Brandeis University VoiceMale, personal interview, Sept. 28, 2004 (hereafter Schneider
interview).
44. John Potter, VocalAuthority: Singing Style and Ideology(New York:Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1998), 169.
45. Averill, Four Parts, No Waiting, 165.
46. One instance when singers actively sought vibrato was when trying to effect a gospel
style. Moreover, soloists do not necessarily need to avoid vibrato when singing a song's
lead because it could function as a marker of emotional intensity.
47. Garnett, "Ethics and Aesthetics"; Goosman, "The Black Atlantic." The Lutheran Choir
of St. Olaf 's College, Northfield, Minn., was founded in 1907 by F. Melius Christiansen. It
was noted for its straight-tone singing, which, through its tours, inspired legions of high
school choir directors to adopt a similar practice of avoiding vibrato while also drawing
criticism (see Keene, A History of Music Education,308-14).
48. Schneider interview.
49. Jon Weinstein, Brandeis University VoiceMale, personal interview, Sept. 23, 2004.
50. Simon Frith, PerformingRites: On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1996), 191.
51. Jane Mclntosh credits the Tufts University Beelzebubs with bringing vocal percus-
sion to collegiate a cappella on their 1991 album, Foster Street (Mclntosh, "In Harmony").
Although the Beelzebubs, led by Deke Sharon, were pioneers in collegiate a cappella in
the early 1990s, they were not alone in recording vocal percussion: the University of North
Carolina Clef Hangers' Safari (1992), for which some tracks were recorded in 1991, also
includes vocal percussion. Recording engineer Bill Hare also recalls the Stanford University
Mendicants recording vocal percussion around 1989 (personal communication). Most col-
legiate a cappella recordings are produced in limited quantities and not widely distributed,
so a comprehensive survey of recordings is difficult. Moreover, a group's recordings may
sound quite different from their live performances. Thus, we cannot assume that recorded
vocal percussion indicates its frequent use in live performance, although anecdotal evi-
dence suggest that it was new to the University of Pennsylvania Counterparts when they
observed the Beelzebubs at a joint performance in Boston in 1991. Sangho Byun, personal
communication, Jan. 13, 2005.
52. Personal observation, vocal percussion workshop held at the Michigan A Cappella
Conference, Sept. 9, 2006. Wes Carroll was one of the founding members of Five O'Clock
Shadow and later joined the House Jacks. He has produced an instructional video that
some a cappella groups use: Mouthdrumming,vol. 1, Introductionto VocalPercussion,video
cassette and DVD (Southwest Harbor, Maine: Mainely A Cappella, 1988).
53. Deborah Wong, SpeakIt Louder:Asian AmericansMakingMusic (New York:Routledge,
2004), 250. The definition of "cipher" is drawn from Wong's correspondence with Asian
American hip-hop artist Peril-L of the Mountain Brothers. Wong's analysis stresses the
role of technology in hip-hop compositional practice: "hip-hoppers refer constantly to
the technologies employed in their compositional process, e.g., beatboxes and mics, but
in this case 'beatbox' means rhyming out loud over a human beatbox, or mouth percus-
sion accompaniment - a performative history that reabsorbs the acoustic percussion - »
electronic beatbox process back into oral performance."
54. There is little scholarship on beatboxing; most discussions of rap emphasize creative
uses of technologies such as turntables, mixers, and samplers rather than percussive or
nonsensical sounds, e.g., Tricia Rose, BlackNoise: RapMusic and BlackCulturein Contempo-
raryAmerica(Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1994). A notable exception is
David Toop, The Rap Attack:African Jive to New YorkHip Hop (London: Pluto Press, 1984).
55. Michael Feldman, posted on the RARB forum (topic: "vocal percussion vs beatbox-
ing"), May 30, 2005.
 Collegiate A Cappella 505

56. "LilVPboy," posted on the Contemporary A Cappella Society forum (http://www.

casa.org) (topic: "Vocal Percussion"-"Na'ive Question"), Sept. 26, 2005.
57. "eksingpuccusser," posted on the RARB forum (topic: "vocal percussion vs beatbox-
ing"), June 10, 2005.
58. Personal observation at Bill Hare's studio (Bill Hare Productions), Aug. 10, 2005.
59. Goosman calls the practice of creating vocal accompaniments "basing," and observes
that singers in postwar black harmony groups called the practice "'backgrounding' a lead."
It was usually applied to songs in typical Tin Pan Alley, AABA form. The A sections would
be sung using call-and-response techniques, with a lead singer calling and the background
singers responding and supporting harmonically. In the B section, the texture would often
shift to "concerted harmony" (Goosman, "The Black Atlantic," 86).
60. There is a considerable musicological literature on musical quotation and borrowing,
too vast to be mentioned here, that ranges from medieval music to the present, including
art music and popular music. J. Peter Burkholder writes in his article on the subject in The
New GroveDictionaryof Music and Musicians:"Approaches to influence, borrowing, allusion
and intertextuality in the parallel fields of art history and literary criticism are bringing
fresh insights to the study of borrowing in music and to the relationships between the
arts. The expansion of research is making it possible for the first time to see all the uses of
existing music, from contrafactum, organum and cantus firmus to collage, jazz contrafacts
and digital sampling, as aspects of a single field that crosses historical periods and research
specializations" (s.v. "borrowing"). For an overview of borrowing from a perspective that
seeks to include all historical periods, genres, and styles, see J. Peter Burkholder, "The Uses
of Existing Music: Musical Borrowing as a Field," Notes 50, no. 3 (1994): 851-70.
61. A powerful example would be "Slumber," by Gabriel Mann, originally performed
by the Gabriel Mann Situation, arranged by Stacey Burcham for the co-ed USC SoCal
VoCals and recorded on TheSoCal VoCals(2004) (also featured on the Best of CollegeA Cap-
pella 2004). At approximately 4:07 into the recording, the driving percussion stops (with a
dramatic reverse cymbal effect) just as all the voices join the soloist in singing the song's
refrain. This climactic moment, powerful because for the first and only time in the song all
voices sing the most important lyrics together, leads directly into the final chorus, during
which disparate motives from earlier in the song weave in and out of the texture while
the overall dynamic relaxes in the approach to the final chord.
62. Barnathan and Levine interview.
63. George Plasketes, "Re-flections on the Cover Age: A Collage of Continuous Coverage
in Popular Music/' PopularMusic and Society 28, no. 2 (2005): 150.
64. Although most a cappella groups perform a repertory based on preexisting record-
ings, in recent years original compositions have become more common (e.g., the Stanford
University Fleet Street Singers' 2004 album, Fleet Street, which consists entirely of original
compositions).
65. Ariel Horn, University of Pennsylvania Counterparts, personal interview, April 19,
2001.
66. Cohen interview.
67. Stebbins, The BarbershopSinger, 62-72.
68. Simon Frith, "Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music, in Music and Society: The
Politics of Composition,Performance,and Reception,ed. Richard Leppert and Susan McClary
(New York:Cambridge University Press, 1987) 140, 142; and R. J. Warren Zanes, "A Fan's
Notes: Identification, Desire, and the Haunted Sound Barrier,"in RockOver the Edge:Trans-
formations in PopularMusic Culture, ed. Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook, and Ben Saunders
(Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2002), 297. Zanes calls identification "grounded in
psychoanalytic thought, which, following Freud, involves a 'wanting to be/ an imitation
o/that with which one identifies."
69. Sara Samimi, Harvard University Fallen Angels, personal interview, Feb. 15, 2005.
506 Duchan

RECORDINGS CITED

Best of CollegeA Cappella.Series of compact discs, annual. Varsity Vocals, 1995-.

Boston University Treblemakers. "Instant Pleasure." Author's field recordings,
2004-5. Originally by Seth Swirsky, recorded by Rufus Wainwright on the Big
Daddy film soundtrack (Sony 69946, 1999).
. "She Will Be Loved." Author's field recordings, 2004-5. Originally by A.
Levine and J. Valentine, recorded by Maroon 5 on Songs about Jane (Octone
50001, 2002).
Boyz II Men. "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday." From Cooleyhighhar-
mony (Motown 6320, 1991).
. "Human Nature." From Throwback.Koch/MSM Music Group 5735, 2004.
Originally recorded by Michael Jackson.
Brandeis University VoiceMale. "Human Nature." Author's field recordings,
2004-5. Originally recorded by Michael Jackson.
. "Let Me Entertain You." Propeller.2003. Also featured on the Best of College
A Cappella2004. Originally by Guy Chambers and Robbie Williams, recorded
by Robbie Williams on Life Thru a Lens (Chrysalis 6127, 1997).
Cornell University Hangovers. "Human Nature." From Blackout.2005. Originally
recorded by Michael Jackson.
Jackson, Michael. "Human Nature." By Steven Porcaro and John Bettis. From
Thriller(Epic QE-38112, 1982).
Joel, Billy. "The Longest Time." From An Innocent Man (Columbia CK 38837,
1983).
McFerrin,Bobby. "Don't Worry,Be Happy." From SimplePleasures(EMIE2-48059,
1988).
Rundgren, Todd. A Capella(Warner Bros. 9251281, 1985).
Stanford University Fleet Street Singers. Fleet Street. 2004.
Steppenwolf. "Magic Carpet Ride." By John Kay and Rush ton Moreve. From
Steppenwolfthe Second (Dunhill DS-50037, 1968).
University of Michigan Amazin' Blue. "Kyrie." From A Little Crazy. 1994. Also
featured on the Best of College A Cappella 1996. Originally by Steve George,
John Lang, and Martin Paige, recorded by Mr. Mister on Welcometo the Real
World(RCA 89647, 1985).
. "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You." From <SelfTitled>. 2004. Originally re-
corded by Sting on TenSummoner'sTales(A&M 89567, 1993).
University of North Carolina Clef Hangers. Safari. 1992.
University of Southern California SoCal VoCals. "Slumber." From The SoCal
VoCals.2004. Also featured on the Best of College A Cappella2004. Originally
by Gabriel Mann, recorded by the Gabriel Mann Situation (not commercially
released).
University of Virginia Gentlemen. "Insomniac." From Sevenand Seven. 1995. Also
featured on the Best of College A Cappella 1996. Originally by Kristian Bush,
recorded by Billy Pilgrim on Billy Pilgrim (Atlantic 82515-2, 1994).
Yale University Whiffenpoofs. The Whiffenpoofs of 1958 (privately pressed,
1958).