declamation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A recitation delivered as an exercise in rhetoric or elocution.
2. n. Vehement oratory.
3. n. A speech marked by strong feeling; a tirade.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act or art of declaiming or making rhetorical harangues in public; especially, the delivery of a speech or an exercise in oratory or elocution, as by a student of a college, etc.: as, a public declamation; the art of declamation.
2. n. Specifically In vocal music, the proper rhetorical enunciation of the words, especially in recitative and in dramatic music.
3. n. A public harangue or set speech; an oration.
4. n. Pompous, high-sounding verbiage in speech or writing; stilted oratory.
5. n. A specially close or successful union of tones with words, as in a song or aria.
6. n. A work in which the text is read or spoken while a musical accompaniment or comment is played. Also called melodrama. See melodrama, 2.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act or art of declaiming; rhetorical delivery; haranguing; loud speaking in public; especially, the public recitation of speeches as an exercise in schools and colleges; as, the practice declamation by students.
2. n. A set or harangue; declamatory discourse.
3. n. Pretentious rhetorical display, with more sound than sense; as, mere declamation.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act or art of declaiming; rhetorical delivery; haranguing; loud speaking in public; especially, the public recitation of speeches as an exercise in schools and colleges.
2. n. A set or harangue; declamatory discourse.
3. n. Pretentious rhetorical display, with more sound than sense.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. recitation of a speech from memory with studied gestures and intonation as an exercise in elocution or rhetoric
2. n. vehement oratory