Room 54--The melisma


One vocal technique which we find recurring throughout history is the melisma. The basic idea behind it is to sing many notes to the same syllable. It was first used in Gregorian plainsong or chant. Pope Gregory, who occupied that position in the late 6th and early 7th centuries was the first first reformer of the liturgical music used in the Catholic church. The concept can be heard in this brief excerpt of chant, sung by the Early Music Consort of London. Listen!

In the 12th century at the time of the Notre Dame school of music, the composer Perotin took the technique to the extreme in such works as the Viderunt Omnes. In this work, four voices sing melismatic passages over a sustained bass note. This manner of composition anticipates the contrapuntal style of the 17th Century Baroque era. Here is a portion of that work, sung once again by the EMC of London. Listen!

The use of melismas found a fuller flowering during the Baroque era, and in a composition such as the sacred oratorio, Messiah by George Frederic Handel, it can be heard in the chorus known as “And He shall purify.” Here’s the chorus sung by the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Orchestra directed by John Eliot Gardiner. This is one of the few recordings where the chorus can always be clearly understood. Listen!

Other examples of melismas can be heard in Room 25—which features the voices of tenor Nigel Rogers and soprano Edita Gruberova.

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