A cappella

A cappella. A choral style marked by the absence of instrumental accompaniment. In the Middle Ages it was the basic style of church music. A cappella singing reached the height of its development during the Renaissance. The choral concertos of Maksym Berezovsky, Dmytro Bortniansky, and Artem Vedel are examples of Ukrainian a cappella music. The style is widespread in both folk and professional choral art, and the works of Mykola Lysenko, Mykola Leontovych, Andrii Shtoharenko, and Platon Maiboroda are popular in a cappella repertoires.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]