Sprechstimme, German for "speech-voice," is a vocal performance technique lying between ordinary speech and fully pitched singing, in which the performer approaches an indicated pitch, often marked in the score with an "x" through the note stem, and glides quickly away from it, producing a heightened, speech-like delivery rather than sustained singing. Developed and named in early twentieth-century German and Austrian music, most influentially by Arnold Schoenberg in Pierrot Lunaire (1912), sprechstimme became a signature technique of musical Expressionism and has continued to appear in later vocal, operatic, and musical-theatrical composition wherever a composer wants speech-like intensity rather than conventional singing.
FAQs
How does sprechstimme differ from ordinary singing?
In ordinary singing, a performer sustains a precise, indicated pitch for the notated duration. In sprechstimme, German for speech-voice, the performer instead approaches an indicated pitch, often marked in the score with an x through the note stem, and glides quickly away from it rather than holding it, producing a heightened, speech-like delivery. Arnold Schoenberg used the technique most influentially in Pierrot Lunaire (1912), and it became a signature device of musical Expressionism whenever a composer wanted speech-like intensity rather than conventional singing.
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Associated With
Schoenberg developed and popularized sprechstimme, notably in Pierrot Lunaire.
Music, Art Forms sprechstimme is a technique of the music art form.
Opera, Art Forms Sprechstimme is used in vocal writing carried into opera and music theatre by 20th century composers.
Sources
Sprechgesang (Wikipedia)
Lead sectionQuote, Lead section
Though sometimes used interchangeably, Sprechgesang is directly related to the operatic recitative manner of singing (in which pitches are sung, but the articulation is rapid and loose like speech), whereas Sprechstimme is closer to speech itself (because it does not emphasise any particular pitches).
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