melisma
Americannoun
noun
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Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
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Etymology
Origin of melisma
First recorded in 1605–15, melisma is from the Greek word mélisma “song, tune”; see melody, -ism
Explanation
Melisma is a musical term used to describe the technique of singing a single text syllable — like "love" — while moving between several different notes in succession. Melisma, often referred to as "riffing," is a common technique in rhythm and blues. You'll hear it in other types of music, too, including pop, opera, and gospel music. Melisma is often used to showcase a singer's agility and range, or to add flair to a song. You'll sometimes hear singers using melisma on words like "brave" and "free" when singing the U.S. national anthem. The opposite of melisma is syllabic singing, where each syllable of a word gets just one note — think "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He asked permission to try it out in front of the London audience, before drifting into a wordless, intimate melisma.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2024
As an example, he cites her vocal melisma on the flamenco track, “Bulerías” — “nobody else in pop can touch that,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2022
Her use of melisma was impeccably tasteful — always just enough, never too much.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 16, 2018
A few songs here — “Don’t Blame Me,” especially, which faintly recalls Madonna’s gospel-choir era — call out for melisma, or a soul-informed vocal approach that blends the tough and the nimble.
From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2017
The closing words of each Psalm are chanted more 171 slowly and impressively, a long "triad" being substituted for the "melisma," sung piano.
From Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from Italy and Switzerland by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix
After filming in July, he went into the studio with Hadyn to work on the score, collecting trilling melismas from musical artists Moses Sumney, Diana Gordon and Nadiah Adu-Gyamfi.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2022
Her rolling melismas, the warm melancholy of the cuatro and her imagistic, somber lyrics cascade into torrents of unbridled anguish.
From New York Times ● Jan. 24, 2022
“We started sending each other mixes,” he said, explaining how snippets of Rosalía’s vocal melismas made their way into his 2021 trap-bolero, “Aquel Nap ZzZz.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 17, 2021
She can belt and she can tease; she can aim a note as directly as a missile or turn its trajectory into an aerobatic spiral of leaping, quivering, scalloping melismas.
From New York Times ● Jun. 13, 2018
Fantasia doesn’t stint on the high-flying melismas that made her an “American Idol” winner on “Christmas After Midnight,” a set of largely familiar Christmas songs with arrangements leaning toward small-group jazz.
From New York Times ● Nov. 29, 2017
On her debut EP, “Finding Foundations, Vol. 1,” Ms. McFerrin shows wonderful vocal dexterity, deftly swerving from sharp, clearly enunciated staccato bursts to fluttery, free-form melismata.
From New York Times ● Mar. 31, 2017
If the repetitions and melismata of his English-text setting owes much to Britte, the level of dissonance in his more static accompaniments is much higher.
From The Guardian ● May 17, 2012
This orchestral treatment was well adapted to music full of cadenzas, vocalises, and melismata of all kinds, and in which tutti were the exception.
From An Autobiography by Stravinsky, Igor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
