A cappella

A cappella [a kapˈpɛlla] (Italian for "in the manner of the chapel") music is specifically group or solo singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It contrasts with cantata, which is accompanied singing. The term "a cappella" was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato style. In the 19th century a renewed interest in Renaissance polyphony coupled with an ignorance of the fact that vocal parts were often doubled by instrumentalists led to the term coming to mean unaccompanied vocal music. The term is also used, albeit rarely, as a synonym for alla breve.

Religious origins

A cappella music was originally used in religious music, especially church music as well as anasheed and zemirot. Gregorian chant is an example of a cappella singing, as is the majority of secular vocal music from the Renaissance. The madrigal, up until its development in the early Baroque into an instrumentally-accompanied form, is also usually in a cappella form. Jewish and Christian music were originally a cappella, and this practice has continued in both of these religions as well as in Islam.

Villa María

Villa María is a city in Córdoba Province, Argentina, and the head town of the General San Martín Department. It is located in the center of rich agricultural land. The area leads the country in production of milk. The city has a population of 72,162 per the 2001 census [INDEC] (Greater Villa María: 119,000), which makes it the third largest city in the province.

The city lies 137 km southeast from the provincial capital, on the left bank of the Tercero River, near the geographical center of Argentina, at the intersection of National Routes 9 and 158, and right next to the Cordoba-Buenos Aires Highway, one of the nation's most important communication arteries.

History

Villa María was founded on 27 September 1867 by Manuel Anselmo Ocampo, a young Porteño belonging to a wealthy family that then went on to become a Buenos Aires provincial senator and minister, founded by Italians (170 families), Germans (57 families), and English (10 families) immigrants. The town grew up around the railway station on the Central Argentine Railway's line between Rosario and Cordoba which was completed 1870. In 1875 it became an important railway junction when the Ferrocarril Andino opened a line linking it to Villa Mercedes, and later to San Juan and Mendoza.