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In a free, speech-like manner.
Printed over a vocal line, often in parentheses at the start of a song or of a recitative-like passage, beside the tempo word. It governs the delivery until a measured marking (in time, a tempo) returns the singer to strict rhythm.
Also spelled: with free declamation
It asks the singer to follow the natural rhythm and stress of the words rather than exact note values, as in recitative, with the accompaniment following. Stanford pairs it with Adagio at the start of a song. Write the rhythm as close to speech as you can, so freedom refines it rather than replaces it, and keep the accompaniment simple enough to follow — sustained chords or punctuating figures.
Stanford, Songs of a Roving Celt, Op. 157, “The Sobbing of the Spey”, voice, m. 1: “(With free declamation)”, beside the tempo “Adagio”.
Free declamation is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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