parlando

American  

[pahr-lahn-doh] / pɑrˈlɑn doʊ /

adjective

Music.

1. sung or played as though speaking or reciting (a musical direction).

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parlando British  

/ pɑːˈlændəʊ /

adjective

1. music to be performed as though speaking

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Etymology

Origin of parlando

1875–80; < Italian, present participle of parlare to speak; see parle

Example Sentences

“I’m tired of making up while you’ve been making out with someone else’s makeup,” she spits in her signature punk parlando.

From Salon • Feb. 19, 2026

Her dark-hued, resinous, trembling-vibrato soprano has an inherent morbidity, haunting in both Fedora’s longer lyrical lines and speech-like parlando.

From New York Times • Jan. 1, 2023

The result, though, on first hearing can sound like an endless flow of parlando singing, more ongoing narration than operatic musing, music confined to underscoring Shakespeare’s unbroachable phrases.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 16, 2022

Her singing was variable in the extreme, with some soft, meltingly lovely parlando phrases giving way to strident, insecurely pitched climaxes that quavered on wiry threads of sound.

From Chicago Tribune • Jan. 24, 2011

His words are parlando, but the orchestra illumines them with music clear as a calcium light.

From Stars of the Opera by Wagnalls, Mabel