Crossword clues for melisma
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Melisma \Me*lis"ma\, n.; pl. Melismata. [NL., fr. Gr. me`lisma a song.] (Mus.)
A piece of melody; a song or tune, -- as opposed to recitative or musical declamation.
A grace or embellishment.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1837, from Greek melisma "a song, an air, a tune, melody," from melos "music, song, melody; musical phrase or member," literally "limb," from PIE *mel- "a limb." Related: Melismatic.
Wiktionary
n. (context music English) A passage of several notes sung to one syllable of text, as in Gregorian chant.
Wikipedia
Melisma ( Greek: μέλισμα, melisma, song, air, melody; from μέλος, melos, song, melody, plural: melismata), in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, in which each syllable of text is matched to a single note.
Usage examples of "melisma".
He was flat on his back with a startled expression and the girl Melisma was standing over him.
Autumn is the note before the last melisma, the third stanza, the congregation fumbling in hymnals to read both words and music.
She knelt, bent her head, and lapsed at once into a melisma of prayer.
Melisma smiled uncertainly, though what Gaph said about the surroundings was undeniably true, for Ruan was nothing if not one of the Core's beauty marks.
Nor did it break off, because as other voices began to weave, over that deep and continuing line, a series of vocalises and melismas, it—telluric—continued to dominate and did not cease for the whole time that it took a speaker to repeat twelve “Ave Maria”s in a slow and cadenced voice.