Loading…
Loading…
The range in which most of a part’s notes lie — its prevailing register, as distinct from its highest and lowest notes. By extension, the register where a voice or instrument is most comfortable.
Judge a part by its tessitura, not only its extremes: a soprano line that touches a high B once is easy, while one that sits around the top of the staff for pages exhausts the singer even if it never goes higher. Keep long passages in the comfortable middle, save the edges of the range for moments that need them, and give singers and wind players a rest after a high-lying stretch.
Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2: the trumpet part lies in the high clarino register throughout the outer movements, not just at its peaks — its tessitura, more than any single note, makes it one of the hardest parts in the repertoire.
Tessitura is one of 1760 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.
Browse the full dictionary →