A cappella music is group or solo singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term a cappella was 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 doubled by instrumentalists led to the term coming to mean unaccompanied vocal music; the term is used, albeit as a synonym for alla breve. A cappella music was used in religious music 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 usually in a cappella form. Jewish and Early Christian music was a cappella, although as noted by the Psalms some songs were accompanied by string instruments and this practice has continued in both of these religions as well as in Islam.

The polyphony of Christian a cappella music began to develop in Europe around the late 15th century AD, with compositions by Josquin des Prez. The early a cappella polyphonies may have had an accompanying instrument, although this instrument would double the singers' parts and was not independent. By the 16th century, a cappella polyphony had further developed, but the cantata began to take the place of a cappella forms. 16th century a cappella polyphony, continued to influence church composers throughout this period and to the present day. Recent evidence has shown that some of the early pieces by Palestrina, such as what was written for the Sistine Chapel was intended to be accompanied by an organ "doubling" some or all of the voices; such is seen in the life of Palestrina becoming a major influence on Bach, most notably in the Mass in B Minor. Other composers that utilized the a cappella style, if only for the occasional piece, were Claudio Monteverdi and his masterpiece, Lagrime d'amante al sepolcro dell'amata, composed in 1610, Andrea Gabrieli when upon his death it was discovered many choral pieces, one of, in the unaccompanied style.

Learning from the preceding two composeres, Heinrich Schütz utilized the a cappella style in numerous pieces, chief among these were the pieces in the oratorio style, which were traditionally performed during the Easter week and dealt with the religious subject matter of that week, such as Christ's suffering and the Passion. Five of Schutz's Historien were Easter pieces, of these the latter three, which dealt with the passion from three different viewpoints, those of Matthew and John, were all done a cappella style; this was a near requirement for this type of piece, the parts of the crowd were sung while the solo parts which were the quoted parts from either Christ or the authors were performed in a plainchant. In the Byzantine Rite of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches, the music performed in the liturgies is sung without instrumental accompaniment. Bishop Kallistos Ware says, "The service is sung though there may be no choir... In the Orthodox Church today, as in the early Church, singing is unaccompanied and instrumental music is not found."

This a cappella behavior arises from strict interpretation of Psalms 150, which states, Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. In keeping with this philosophy, early Russian musika which started appearing in the late 17th century, in what was known as khorovïye kontsertï made a cappella adaptations of Venetian-styled pieces, such as the treatise, Grammatika musikiyskaya, by Nikolai Diletsky. Divine Liturgies and Western Rite masses composed by famous composers such as Peter Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Arkhangelsky, Mykola Leontovych are fine examples of this. Present-day Christian religious bodies known for conducting their worship services without musical accompaniment include many Anabaptist communities, some Presbyterian churches devoted to the regulative principle of worship, Old Regular Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Plymouth Brethren, Churches of Christ, Church of God, the Reformed Free Methodists and the Byzantine Rite of Eastern Christianity.

Certain high church services and other musical events in liturgical churches may be a cappella, a practice remaining from apostolic times. Many Mennonites conduct some or all of their services without instruments. Sacred Harp, a type of folk music, is an a cappella style of religious singing with shape notes sung at singing conventions. Opponents of musical instruments in the Christian worship believe that such opposition is supported by the Christian scriptures and Church history; the scriptures referenced are Matthew 26:30. There is no reference to instrumental music in early church worship in the New Testament, or in the worship of churches for the first six centuries. Several reasons have been posited throughout church history for the absence of instrumental music in church worship. Christians who believe in a cappella music today believe that in the Israelite worship assembly during Temple worship only the Priests of Levi sang

The Progressive Artists' Group, PAG, was a group of modern artists based in Bombay, from its formation in 1947. Though it lacked any particular style, there might be said to have been a move towards a synthesis of influences from Indian art history together with styles prevalent in Europe and North America during the first half of the 20th Century, including Post-Impressionism and Expressionism; the Progressive Artists' Group was formed by six founder members, F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza, M. F. Husain, K. H. Ara, H. A. Gade, S. K. Bakre. Others associated with the group included Ram Kumar, Akbar Padamsee and Tyeb Mehta; the group wished to break with the revivalist nationalism established by the Bengal school of art and to encourage an Indian avant-garde, engaged at an international level. The Group was formed just months after the 14 August 1947 "Partition of India" and Pakistan that resulted in religious rioting and death of tens of thousands of people displaced by the new borders; the founders of the Progressive Artists Group cite "the partition" as impetus for their desire for new standards in India, starting with their new style of art.

Their intention was to "paint with absolute freedom for content and technique anarchic, save that we are governed by one or two sound elemental and eternal laws, of aesthetic order, plastic co-ordination and colour composition."In 1950, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Prafulla Dahanukar, Krishen Khanna and Mohan Samant joined the Group. Following the departure of the two main founders Souza and Raza from India few years S. K. Bakre left the group, which disbanded in 1956. European Modernism was the most distinctive influence on the group, but its members worked in different styles, from the Expressionism of Souza to the pure abstraction of Gaitonde. Specific Indian imagery and landscapes were adopted by Mehta and Husain. Through the incorporation and mixture of new, abstract styles with traditional Indian art elements and Media, the PAG is one of the most influential art movements in India until today. In 2015, F. N. Souza's painting "Birth" set a new record for Indian art with a hammer price above US$4 Mio, which shows the worldwide appeal of the group.

Calcutta Group Partition of India Partha Mitter, Indian Art, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-284221-8 How it all started- Progressive artist group Modern Art in India, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York M. F. Husain, An artist and a movement, Frontline magazine, Vol.14::No.16::Aug.9-22, 1997 - includes group photo Private Collection

Fitzcarraldo is the second studio album by The Frames, released under the moniker The Frames DC to avoid confusion with the American band of the same name. Another version of the album would be published in 1996; the album was released on ZTT Records in November 1995. The Frames' line-up for Fitzcarraldo features Glen Hansard on guitar and vocals, Colm Mac Con Iomaire on violin, Graham Downey on bass guitar and keyboards, Dave Odlum on lead guitar, Paul Brennan on drums and Noreen O'Donnell on backing vocals, they featured Pete Briquette on keyboards & programming, Dee Armstrong on viola and Kevin Murphy on cello. It was recorded at Totally Wired Studios, Dublin by Ivan O'Shea and Tom Skerrit and produced and mixed by Pete Briquette; the title track's name comes from Werner Herzog's 1982 film Fitzcarraldo which frontman Hansard describes as being about a man "pulling a ship over a mountain". "Revelate" "Angel At My Table" "Monument" "In This Boat Together" "Giving It All Away" "Say It To Me Now" "Denounced" "Red Chord" "Roger" "Fitzcarraldo" "Your Face" Fitzcarraldo was re-issued by ZTT Records on October 29, 1996.

The Frames' line-up for Fitzcarraldo features Glen Hansard on guitar and vocals, Colm Mac Con Iomaire on violin, Graham Downey on bass guitar and keyboards, Dave Odlum on lead guitar, Paul Brennan on drums and Noreen O'Donnell on backing vocals. They featured Pete Briquette on keyboards & programming, Dee Armstrong on viola and Kevin Murphy on cello. Tracks 6-11 were recorded at Totally Wired Studios, Dublin by Ivan O'Shea and Tom Skerrit and produced and mixed by Pete Briquette and are the same as those on the previous release. Tracks 1-5 were produced by Trevor Horn and engineered by Steve Fitzmaurice, except track 1, engineered by Tom Elmhurst at Westside; these tracks were re-worked for the re-issue and "Roger" was replaced by "Evergreen" and the track order changed. All tracks were mixed by Steve Fitzmaurice. "Revelate" "Angel At My Table" "Fitzcarraldo" "Evergreen" "In This Boat Together" "Say It To Me Now" "Monument" "Giving It All Away" "Red Chord" "Denounced" "Your Face" The Frames