tessitura
Americannoun
noun
-
the general pitch level of a piece of vocal music
an uncomfortably high tessitura
-
the compass or range of a voice
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tessitura
1890–95; < Italian: literally, texture < Latin textūra; see texture
Explanation
If you're a singer with a remarkably wide tessitura, the range of notes that you can sing without straining is impressive. You could comfortably sing a piece of music with very high and very low notes. Without training, the average person’s tessitura is only about six consecutive notes. That doesn't mean that they can't sing other notes at all; it just means that singing lower or higher notes is a strain. A piece or passage of music also has a tessitura, the range that a singer's voice or an instrument stays within for most of the piece. A piece with a low tessitura has notes that are mostly in the lower part of a singer's or an instrument's range; one with a high tessitura has notes mostly in the higher part of a singer's or instrument's range.
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.
Instead, voice type is a function of tessitura and vocal weight — a woman singing low almost always sounds like a woman singing low, not like a tenor.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 25, 2021
“The note,” Mr. Adès said, “the range, the tessitura, is a metaphor for the ability to transcend these psychological and invisible boundaries that have grown up around them.”
From New York Times • Nov. 7, 2017
She also struggled, as many cellists do, with the treacherously high tessitura of the sixth suite, which was originally written for a five-stringed instrument.
From Washington Post • Oct. 17, 2016
Though managing the difficult high tessitura well, Aikin did not, probably could not under these extreme circumstances, sing pianissimo.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 9, 2014
This smaller range is called the tessitura of the part.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
