recitative

A type of musical declamation which allows the words to be delivered naturally and quickly, and is therefore indispensable in those types of all-sung opera, oratorio, and cantata in which dialogue and narrative are interrupted by long or numerous arias. ‘Simple recitative’ (recitativó semplice or secco) is accompanied only by continuo; ‘accompanied recitative’ (recitativó accompagnato or stromentato) by the orchestra.

Recitative, a form of composition often used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas (and occasionally in operettas and even musicals), is melodic speech set to music, or a descriptive narrative song in which the music follows the words.

Recitative is distinguished from more florid and melismatic arias, as the rhythms and melodic contours of recitative often approximate those of normal speech, often including repeating pitches. Recitative can be conversational and improvisational, giving a naturalness somewhere between speech and song. Recitative in serious opera or oratorio functions dramatically in much the same way as dialogue in musical theatre.

Recitative often has simple accompaniment, sometimes nothing more than a basso continuo. The terms recitativo secco and recitativo accompagnato (or recitativo stromentato) are sometimes used to distinguish recitative accompanied only by continuo and recitative accompanied by the orchestra.

Historically, the recitative is a religious composition tradition, specifically in passions and Gregorian chant.

The use of recitative in opera is widely attributed to Vincenzo Galilei, father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei. This style is known as recitativo secco ("dry recitative").

Secco recitative, popularized in Florence though the proto-opera music dramas of Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini during the late 16th century, formed the substance of Claudio Monteverdi's operas during the 17th, and continued to be used into the Romantic era by such composers as Gaetano Donizetti. The recitatives of Johann Sebastian Bach, found in his passions and cantatas, are also quite notable.

Accompanied recitative employs the orchestra as an accompanying body. George Frideric Handel, Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart often used the accompanied recitative;

Later operas, under the influence of Richard Wagner, favored through-composition, where recitatives, arias, choruses and other elements were seamlessly interwoven into a whole. Many of Wagner's operas employ sections which are analogous accompanied recitative.

Recitative has also sometimes been used to refer to parts of purely instrumental works which resemble vocal recitatives (passages in Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.