Tessitura

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Tessitura

In music

Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, the term tessitura (plural tessiture; Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
, meaning "texture", and from the same Latin word: textura) generally describes the most musically acceptable and comfortable range

Range (music)

In music, the range of a musical instrument is the distance from the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. For a singing register , this is known as vocal range....
for a given singer

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the human voice, which is often contrasted with regular speech. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist....
or, less frequently, musical instrument

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
; the range in which a given type of voice

Voice type

Texture (music)

Texture is one of the basic elements of music. People use texture to describe the amount of rhythms played at a specific time. In music, texture also means the overall quality of sound of a piece , most often indicated by the number of melody in the music and by the relationship between these voices ....
or timbre

Timbre

In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices or musical instruments....
. This broad definition is often interpreted to refer specifically to the pitch

Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
range

Range (music)

In music, the range of a musical instrument is the distance from the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. For a singing register , this is known as vocal range....
that most frequently occurs within a given piece, or part, of music.

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Encyclopedia

In music

Music

Italian language

Range (music)

In music, the range of a musical instrument is the distance from the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. For a singing register , this is known as vocal range....
for a given singer

Singing

Musical instrument

Voice type

Texture (music)

Timbre

Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
range

Range (music)

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, Conducting, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas . Unlike most other great opera composers, Wagner wrote both the scenario and libretto for his works....
's Ring

Der Ring des Nibelungen

Der Ring des Nibelungen is a literature cycle of four epic poetry music dramas by the Germany composer Richard Wagner. The operas are based loosely on characters from the Sagas and the Nibelungenlied....
, the music written for the role of Siegfried ranges from C#3 to C5, but the tessitura is described as high because the tenor phrases are most often in the range of C4 to A4.

In musical notation

Musical notation

Music notation or musical notation is any system which represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written Modern musical symbols....
, tessitura is used to refer to the compass in which a piece of music lies – whether high or low, etc – for a particular vocal (or less often instrumental) part. The tessitura of a piece is not decided by the extremes of its range, but rather by which part of the range is most used. The tessitura of a part will often influence what clef

Clef

A clef is a musical notation used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff , it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line....
a particular piece of music is written in. Melodic contour may also be considered to be an important aspect of vocal tessitura.

The "tessitura" concept addresses not merely a range of pitches but as well the arrangement of those pitches. Tessitura considerations include these factors: proportion of sudden or gradual rises and falls in pitch - speed of pitch changes; the relative number of very high or low notes; whether lines and phrases of music in the piece tend to rise or fall – the muscular abilities of a singer may be more suited to one or the other direction.

Although frequently ignored in discourses on tessitura, the volume (loudness) level which a singer is required to maintain for dramatic effect will often have an effect on which 'fach

Fach

The German Fach system is a method of classifying singers, primarily opera singers, The Fach system is a convenience for singers and opera houses....
' (voice type

Voice type

A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types....
) or tessitura in which he or she may specialise. For example a lyric tenor may have the vocal range to sing Wagner or other dramatic roles, but to maintain the loudness required for dramatic intensity over the span of an opera performance could either inflict vocal damage or be simply beyond the innate ability. Verdi's Othello is a good example of the need for a voice capable of substantial power throughout the length of a performance of the opera.

Tessitura

See also