Roulade (music)

Not to be confused with Remoulade.
Queen of the Night aria prominently showcases a roulade in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (2015 production)

A roulade (from Old French roler, "to roll") is a type of music ornamentation.[1] The term has been used with some variation in meaning.[1] While the term has had some usage in instrumental music, it is most frequently used in the context of vocal music to refer to a florid embellishment of several musical notes sung on a single syllable. The word has sometimes been used interchangeably with the term coloratura to refer to any difficult vocal run requiring great vocal dexterity,[2] or as a synonym for or a specific type of virtuosic melisma.[3][4] The term roulade has also been used more specifically to refer to the ornamental practice of splitting up the melodic line of a piece of music into many smaller notes.[2]

The term roulade has sometimes been defined as a vocal ornamental passage specifically limited to opera arias of the Classical and Romantic music periods. However, this limited definition is contradicted in the historical record, and other writers have used the term in contexts to other forms of music, such as oratorio, gospel music, and rock and roll.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Grove was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b William Berger (2002). NPR The Curious Listener's Guide to Opera. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 9781101221174.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference West was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Modern was invoked but never defined (see the help page).