recitative

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Of, relating to, or having the character of a recital or recitation.
2. n. A style used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas in which the text is declaimed in the rhythm of natural speech with slight melodic variation and little orchestral accompaniment.
3. n. A passage rendered in this style.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. In music, in the style of a recitative; as if spoken.
2. n. In music:
3. n. A form or style of song resembling declamation—that is, in which regularity of rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic structure is reduced to the minimum. It is a union of song and speech, with the emphasis sometimes on one element and sometimes on the other, but with a careful avoidance of technical “form” in the musical sense. The division into phrases is properly governed by rhetorical reasons only. The strictly tonal and metrical qualities of a balanced melody are usually but meagerly represented. The sequence of harmonies and of tonalities is often entirely unrestricted. An unaccompanied recitative (recitativo secco) has only a few detached instrumental chords, or a basso continuo, to suggest or sketch the harmonic basis of the melody. Accompaniments of this sort have been given at different periods to different instruments, such as the harpsichord, the violoncello, or the string orchestra alone. An accompanied recitative (recitativo stromentato) has a continuous instrumental background, which occasionally becomes highly descriptive or dramatic, and may be assigned to a full orchestra. This variety of recitative passes over insensibly into the arioso and the aria parlante. The recitative was invented, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, in the course of an attempt by certain Florentine musicians to recover the dramatic declamation of the ancient Greeks. Its recognition as a legitimate style of composition opened the way for the development of the dramatic forms of the opera and the oratorio, in both of which it has always retained a prominent place. Its value in such extended forms is due to its adaptability to descriptive, explanatory, and epic matter generally, as well as to strictly dramatic utterance of every kind. It has been customary to introduce lyric arias by recitatives; but in the operatic works of the present century the formal distinction between recitative and aria has been more or less abandoned as arbitrary. The melos of Wagner is an intermediate form, capable of extension in either direction. Also recitation.
4. n. A section, passage, or movement in the style described above.

Wiktionary

1. n. music dialogue, in an opera etc, that, rather than being sung as an aria, is reproduced with the rhythms of normal speech, often with simple musical accompaniment or harpsichord continuo, serving to expound the plot
2. adj. of a recital

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Mus.) A species of musical recitation in which the words are delivered in a manner resembling that of ordinary declamation; also, a piece of music intended for such recitation; -- opposed to melisma.
2. adj. Of or pertaining to recitation; intended for musical recitation or declamation; in the style or manner of recitative.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a vocal passage of narrative text that a singer delivers with natural rhythms of speech