tessitura

American  

[tes-i-toor-uh, tes-see-too-rah] / ˌtɛs ɪˈtʊər ə, ˌtɛs siˈtu rɑ /

noun

plural

tessituras, tessiture

1. the general pitch level or average range of a vocal or instrumental part in a musical composition.

   an uncomfortably high tessitura.

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tessitura British  

/ ˌtɛsɪˈtʊərə /

noun

1. the general pitch level of a piece of vocal music

   an uncomfortably high tessitura

2. the compass or range of a voice

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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 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 range; one with a high tessitura has notes mostly in the higher part of a singer's range.

Example Sentences

After singing Caláf, which is a pretty hard tessitura, it’s very demanding.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 5, 2024

If you talk to any mezzo, they will tell you it’s very hard to sing Cherubino, because it’s quite high — not super high notes, but sitting all the time in a high tessitura.

From New York Times • May 27, 2022

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

A song’s range concerns all of the notes in a song from lowest to highest, while the tessitura concerns the part of the register that contains the most tones of that melody.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin