Skip to content
melisma
EntityQ248255· pop 30· linked from 446 articles

Also known as melismata, melismatic, vocal run

thumb|400px|Syllabic and melismatic text setting: "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today|Jesus Christ Is Ris'n Today" (Methodist Hymn Book, 1933, No. 204).

Wikidata facts

Instance of
vocal technique
Subclass of
singing
Part of
melody
Has part
melism
Image
Handel Messiah - For Unto Us a Child is Born excerpt.png
Show 2 more facts
different from
melism
facet of
vocal music
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~4 min read

Encyclopedic overview

7 sections
Contents
  • History
  • General
  • Prevalence in western popular music
  • Examples
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

thumb|400px|Syllabic and melismatic text setting: "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today|Jesus Christ Is Ris'n Today" (Methodist Hymn Book, 1933, No. 204).

Melisma (, , ; from , plural: melismata), informally known as a vocal run and sometimes interchanged with the term roulade, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, in which each syllable of text is matched to a single note.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “melisma” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (4)