Recitativo

As Printed on a Score

Printed above a vocal line (Recitativo, recit.) where speech-like singing begins, and in instrumental music over a passage to be phrased like declamation. Recitatives are often loosely barred, with fermatas and colla voce in the accompaniment; an aria heading, a tempo or a new tempo word ends them.

Abbreviations: recit., rec.

How Composers Use It

Recitative carries words at the speed of speech: free rhythm, repeated notes, little display, the accompaniment following. Secco recitative uses continuo chords alone; accompagnato adds the orchestra. In instrumental music the label asks a player to speak like a singer — Beethoven gives recitatives to the cellos and basses in the Ninth’s finale and to the piano in Op. 110. Notate the rhythm of the words; performers will free it.

Example

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, third movement, m. 4: “Recitativo”, among shifting markings (“più adagio”, then “Adagio”) before the Arioso dolente.

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