Collegiate a cappella Collegiate a cappella (or college a cappella) ensembles are college-affiliated singing groups, primarily in the United States, and, increasingly, the United Kingdom and Ireland, that perform entirely without musical instruments. The groups are typ ...

arrived at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1963, when the

Stanford Mendicants The Stanford Mendicants are an all-male a cappella group at Stanford University. The group is Stanford University's first a cappella group. Since its founding in 1963, the group's size has varied from 6 to 19 members. Although they are strictly an ...

were founded by a transfer student from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, the school where collegiate a cappella began. The Mendicants were the first a cappella group on the West Coast of the United States. The all-male Mendicants were followed by Stanford's second a cappella group,

Counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

, the first all-female a cappella group on the West Coast. By the 1980s, as collegiate a cappella hit an inflection point and the number of groups doubled around the United States, Stanford saw the founding of four more a cappella groups, each with its own initial differentiating focus:

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...

(founded 1981, focused on

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

), Mixed Company (founded 1985, Stanford's first co-ed a cappella group), and

Everyday People "Everyday People" is a 1968 song composed by Sly Stone and first recorded by his band, Sly and the Family Stone. It was the first single by the band to go to number one on the Soul singles chart and the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. It held ...

(founded 1987, focused on

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

, R&B, and the burgeoning genre of hip hop music), and Stanford Talisman (founded in 1989, focused on music from the

African diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were e ...

). By the 1990s, Stanford a cappella groups began receiving national recognition for their recorded music, created with audio engineer

Bill Hare Bill Hare is an American Grammy Award-winning audio engineer known for pioneering contemporary recording techniques in a cappella. He was the first to record voices individually, and the first to mic singers exactly as one would mic instrument ...

. In 1995, Fleet Street won the 1995 national

Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards The Contemporary A Cappella Society (of America), or CASA, is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to fostering and promoting a cappella music of all styles around the world. CASA was founded in 1991 by Deke Sharon in San Francisco just ...

for best album, best song, and best soloist. President of the Society,

Deke Sharon Deke Sharon (born December 12, 1967) is an American singer, arranger, composer, director, producer and teacher of a cappella music, and is one of the leaders and promoters of the contemporary a cappella community. He has been referred to as "th ...

, praised the group's work, saying, "The quality f their musicis fantastic. They're very good performers and their recordings are remarkably professional for a student-run group." In 1999, Stanford groups received a record 14 nominations at the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards. Sharon, said, "it's rare for so many excellent groups to come out of one school."

List of a cappella groups

As of 2019, there are ten a cappella groups at Stanford. Here, in order of founding date: *

Mendicants A mendicant (from la, mendicans, "begging") is one who practices mendicancy, relying chiefly or exclusively on alms to survive. In principle, mendicant religious orders own little property, either individually or collectively, and in many ins ...

(f. 1963): Stanford's oldest a cappella group. *

(f. 1979): the first all-female collegiate a cappella group on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

. *

(f. 1981): a comedy a cappella group known for original songs. * Mixed Company ("Mixed Co"; f. 1985): a group focused on pop and Top 40 hits. *

("EP"; f. 1987) a group focused on Hip Hop, R&B,

and

Soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

music. *

Talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

(f. 1989): a group with roots in music from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and the

. *

Harmonics A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the '' fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', ...

(f. 1991): an

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

-focused group known for their highly produced recordings. *

Testimony In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. La ...

(f. 1991): a

Christian music Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely around ...

a cappella group. * Raagapella (f. 2002): a co-ed a cappella group with a

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

n focus. * Sing Plus Plus ("Sing++"; f. 2015): a group performing Chinese music and other cultural music well-known in Chinese communities. * O-Tone (f. 2016): a group with a focus on

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

n music.

Bibliography

* Brockenbrough, Andy (26 September 1991). "A time to sing and sing and..." published in ''

The Stanford Daily ''The Stanford Daily'' is the student-run, independent daily newspaper serving Stanford University. ''The Daily'' is distributed throughout campus and the surrounding community of Palo Alto, California, United States. It has published since the U ...

'', p. 8. Print. * Chopra, Nitin (24 September 1998). "A cappella nation: A Stanford tradition," published in ''

: Intermission'', pp. 5–7. Print. * Omer, Issra (11 August 2011). "Beyond the barbershop: Stanford’s diverse a capella scene
published online
by ''

''. Online.

References

{{Stanford University Collegiate a cappella groups Stanford University vocal groups