Recitative

Recitative, a form of composition often used in operas, oratorios, cantatas and similar works, is melodic speech set to music, or a descriptive narrative song in which the music follows the words.

Recitative is distinguished from more florid and melismatic arias, as the rhythms and melodic contours of recitative often approximate those of normal speech, often including repeating pitches. Recitative can be conversational and improvisational, giving a naturalness somewhere between speech and song. It is used where dialogue or monologue is sung in between the arias, choruses or other numbers, and serves to advance the plot quickly. Recitative functions dramatically in much the same way as dialogue in musical theatre.

Recitative often has simple accompaniment, sometimes nothing more than a basso continuo. The most common practice is using a single harpsichord playing occasional chords. The terms recitativo secco and recitativo accompagnato (or recitativo stromentato) are sometimes used to distinguish recitative accompanied only by continuo and recitative accompanied by the orchestra.

Historically, the recitative is a religious composition tradition, specifically in passions and Gregorian chant. For special occasions like Easter, the gospel text would be sung in on a reciting tone, alternating with hymns, arias or choruses not specifically quoting the Gospel.

The use of recitative in opera is widely attributed to Vincenzo Galilei, father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei. The elder Galelei, influenced by the writings of the ancient Greeks, and wishing to recreate the old manner of storytelling and drama, pioneered the use of a single melodic line to tell the story, accompanied by simple chords from a harpsichord or lute. This style is known as recitativo secco ("dry recitative").

Secco recitative, popularized in Florence though the proto-opera music dramas of Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini during the late 16th century, formed the substance of Claudio Monteverdi's operas during the 17th, and continued to be used into the Romantic era by such composers as Gaetano Donizetti. It also influenced areas of music outside opera from the outset. The 1610 Vespers of Monteverdi contain two large sections of secco recitativo for tenor, the second of which, for the virtuoso Audi Ceolum, is seamlessly intertwined with choral sections, florid runs and an echo effect from a second singer. The recitatives of Johann Sebastian Bach, found in his passions and cantatas, are also quite notable.

Accompanied recitative employs the orchestra as an accompanying body. As a result, it is less improvisational, declamatory and songlike than secco recitativo . This form is often employed for grand moments of drama, or to prepare an aria. George Frideric Handel, Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart often used the accompanied recitative; a famous example is "Comfort Ye" from Handel's Messiah.

Later operas, under the influence of Richard Wagner, favored through-composition, where recitatives, arias, choruses and other elements were seamlessly interwoven into a whole. Many of Wagner's operas employ sections which are analogous accompanied recitative.

The recitativo style of singing has not been abandoned in pop culture. Much popular music, including rap could be described as recitativo accompagnato.

Recitative has also sometimes been used to refer to parts of purely instrumental works which resemble vocal recitatives (passages in Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17 (The Tempest) and Piano Sonata No. 31 are examples).

See also

* Melodrama ("Historical sense" section)