Melisma

History

General

The term melisma may be used to describe music of any genre, including baroque singing, opera, and later gospel. Within the tradition of religious Jewish music, melisma is still commonly used in the chanting of Torah, readings from the Prophets, and in the body of a service.

Melisma is prevalent in many forms of Gregorian chant (see e.g. Jubilus) as well as late-medieval sacred polyphony, notably in works by Guillaume de Machaut, John Dunstaple, and many early Tudor composers represented in the Eton, Caius, and Lambeth choirbooks.

Today, melisma is commonly used in Middle Eastern, African, and African-American music, Irish Sean-nós singing, and flamenco. African music infused the blues with melisma. Due to the influences of African-American music, melisma is also commonly featured in Western popular music. Gaelic music's use of melisma commonly appears in early Appalachian music and has been a constant feature of American country and western music since its inception.

Prevalence in western popular music

The use of melisma is a common feature of artists such as Kim Burell, Deniece Williams, Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Céline Dion, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Brandy, and Beyoncé, among others. The use of melismatic vocals in pop music slowly grew in the 1980s. In the following two decades, melismatic vocals became the standard used to judge a singer’s skill. This is partially why singers who are proficient in this singing style consistently make the lists of the most highly regarded singers of all time. Deniece Williams topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in May 1984, with "Let's Hear It for the Boy" with her melismatic vocals. Although other artists used melisma before, Houston's rendition of Dolly Parton's ballad "I Will Always Love You" pushed the technique into the mainstream in the 1990s. The trend in R&B singers is considered to have been popularized by Mariah Carey's song "Vision of Love", which was released and topped the U.S. charts in 1990, and went on to be certified gold.

As late as 2007, melismatic singers such as Leona Lewis were still scoring big hits, but around 2008–2009, this trend reverted to how it was prior to Carey, Dion, and Houston's success – singers with less showy styles such as Kesha and Cheryl Cole began to outsell new releases by Carey and Christina Aguilera, ending nearly two decades of the style's dominance of pop-music vocals.

Examples

The traditional French carol tune to which the hymn "Angels We Have Heard on High" is usually sung (and "Angels from the Realms of Glory" in Great Britain) contains one of the most well-known melismatic sequences in Christian hymn music. Twice in its refrain, the o of the word Gloria is held through 16 different notes.

George Frideric Handel's Messiah contains numerous examples of melisma, as in the following excerpt from the chorus "For Unto Us a Child Is Born" (Part I, No. 12). The soprano and alto lines engage in a 57-note melisma on the word born.

References

References

1. Shepherd, John. (2003). "Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Performance and Production". A&C Black.
2. Katzif, Mike. (January 11, 2007). "How 'American Idol' Uses (and Abuses) Melisma". [[National Public Radio]].
3. (2007). "Music in the Western World". Cengage Learning.
4. (1911). "Modern Music and Musicians; Part Two: Encyclopedia". University Society.
5. Idelsohn, Abraham Zevi. (May 2020). "Jewish Music: Its Historical Development". Courier Corporation.
6. Everitt, Lauren. (February 15, 2012). "Whitney Houston and the art of melisma". BBC News.
7. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "'Whoa, Nelly!' review". AllMusic.
8. (February 4, 2003). "'Vision of Love' sets off melisma trend". [[The Village Voice]].
9. Frere-Jones, Sasha. (April 3, 2006). "On Top: Mariah Carey's record-breaking career".
10. (November 27, 2008). "100 Greatest Singers of All Time: #79. Mariah Carey".
11. Browne, David. (December 26, 2010). "Trilling Songbirds Clip Their Wings". [[The New York Times]].