fioritura

American  

[fee-awr-i-toor-uh, -ohr-, fyaw-ree-too-rah] / fiˌɔr ɪˈtʊər ə, -ˌoʊr-, ˌfyɔ riˈtu rɑ /

noun

Music.

fioriture plural

1. the ornamentation of a melody, often extemporized by the performer, as in Italian opera during the 18th century.

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fioritura British  

/ ˌfiːərɪ-, ˌfjɔːrɪˈtʊərə /

noun

1. music embellishment, esp ornamentation added by the performer

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• fioriture
  plural

Etymology

Origin of fioritura

1835–45; < Italian, equivalent to fiorit ( o ) flowery, originally past participle of fiorire to flower + -ura -ure

Example Sentences

The only reason to pluck it from obscurity now is to afford a singing actress like Sills the dual opportunity to make life look difficult and bel canto fioritura easy.

From Time Magazine Archive

But the high, falsetto fioritura of the singers is difficult to take at the start, even if it is the Chinese ideal of good singing.

From Time Magazine Archive

Their songs were low and musical, not unlike the song of the canary, though there were no cadenzas or fioritura passages.

From The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals by Weir, James

For example, how divinely you do that fioritura... that...

From Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series by West, Julius

His tone is very sonorous, his touch singing, and he commands the entire range of nuance from the rippling fioritura of the Chopin barcarolle to the cannon-like thunderings of the A-flat polonaise.

From Franz Liszt by Huneker, James