melismatic
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From melismata + -ic, also contrued as melisma + -tic.
Adjective
[edit]melismatic (comparative more melismatic, superlative most melismatic)
- (music) Of, relating to, or being a melisma; the style of singing several notes to one syllable of text.
- 1991, Elizabeth Wichmann, Listening to Theatre: The Aural Dimension of Beijing Opera, University of Hawaii Press, page 92:
- Because slower metrical types are more melismatic and ornamented than primary-meter, their melodic-passages in both xipi and erhuang are more melismatic and complex than those of primary-meter.
- 1998, Barbara Newman, Introduction, Barbara Newman (translator), Hildegard von Bingen, Symphonia: A Critical Edition of the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum, Cornell University Press, 2nd Edition, page 28,
- In general, the more melismatic a piece, the more solemn, elaborate, and difficult it is, and the more the text is dominated by the music.
- 2006, James Grier, The Musical World of a Medieval Monk: Adémar de Chabannes in Eleventh-century Aquitaine, Cambridge University Press, page 358:
- The melismatic content of this chant lies at the extreme of what is typical for responsories, usually considered among the most melismatic chant types.
Usage notes
[edit]An attribute of some Islamic and Gregorian chants, as well as of a singing style prevalent in popular music from the early 1990s to the late 2000s.
Coordinate terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]of, relating to, or being a melisma
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References
[edit]- “melismatic”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
