Recitative

Recitative is sung speech. In an opera, oratorio or cantata, it carries the plot: conversations, narration, instructions, sudden news. The melody follows the natural rhythm and inflection of the words, so a singer can deliver a lot of text quickly and clearly. Then, when the drama reaches a moment of feeling, the music settles into an aria, an ensemble or a chorus.

Two main kinds

• Secco recitative (recitativo secco, "dry recitative"): accompanied only by the continuo, typically a harpsichord with a cello or another bass instrument, which plays sparse chords under the voice. It is the standard way of setting dialogue in Baroque opera and in Mozart's Italian comic operas.
• Accompanied recitative (recitativo accompagnato or obbligato): accompanied by the orchestra, which adds dramatic gestures between the vocal lines. Composers saved it for intense moments: a vision, a decision, a character on the edge.

How it looks and sounds

Recitative is usually written in 4/4 time, but singers perform it with the freedom of speech, stretching important words and moving quickly through unimportant ones. The vocal line has many repeated notes and few long melodic phrases. In Baroque and Classical style, singers also add unwritten ornaments, especially an appoggiatura on certain phrase endings where the score shows two repeated notes. The final cadence of a secco recitative is often played by the continuo after the singer has finished.

Where it came from

Recitative goes back to the very beginnings of opera around 1600, when composers in Florence wanted a way of singing that let the words be heard as clearly as in spoken drama. In the 19th century, the strict division between recitative and aria gradually faded, as composers such as Verdi and Wagner wrote more continuous music.

Recitative outside opera

Bach's cantatas use recitative throughout, and in his Passions it belongs above all to the narrator, the Evangelist, who tells the story between the arias and chorales. Handel's oratorios, including Messiah, use both secco and accompanied recitative.

Singing recitative

Speak the text aloud first, in rhythm, until it sounds like natural speech. Then sing it on the written pitches, keeping the same rhythm and emphasis. Coordinate with your accompanist: in secco recitative, chords usually come in under or just before the words they support, so the accompanist has to follow you rather than a fixed beat.