Declamando

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the vocal line (or an instrumental melody) where the delivery should become speech-like; it lasts for the phrase or passage. The participle declamato means the same.

Also spelled: declamato

How Composers Use It

Declaiming means projecting the words with rhetorical weight: rhythm shaped by the text’s stresses, consonants pointed, a freer, oratorical pulse. In songs it marks the moment a singer stops simply singing and starts addressing someone; in instrumental music it asks the line to speak like recitative. Give it a dynamic, since declamation can be quiet as well as loud.

Example

Fauré, “Au cimetière”, Op. 51, voice, m. 36: “declamando” at f, three bars after the voice’s pp.

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