View source for Coloratura

{{about|the melody|the Coldplay song|Coloratura (song)}}
{{short description|Type of elaborate melody}}
[[File:Bartolomeo Nazari - Portrait of Farinelli 1734 - Royal College of Music London.jpg|thumb|[[Farinelli]], a soprano [[castrato]] famous for singing [[Baroque music|baroque]] coloratura roles ([[Bartolomeo Nazari]], 1734)]]

'''Coloratura''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|ˌ|k|ɒ|l|ər|ə|ˈ|tj|ʊər|ə}} {{respell|KOL|ər|ə|TURE|ə}}, {{IPAc-en|US|ˌ|k|ʌ|l|-}} {{respell|KUL|-}}, {{IPA|it|koloraˈtuːra|lang}}; {{lit|material that has been colored}}, from ''colorata'', the past participle of the verb ''colorare'', 'to color')<ref name="MacOSXDictionary" /> is a [[passage (music)|passage of music]] holding elaboration to a [[melody]]. The elaboration usually takes the form of [[run (music)|runs]], [[trill (music)|trills]], wide [[Steps and skips|leaps]] or other [[virtuoso]] material,<ref name="MacOSXDictionary">''Oxford American Dictionaries''.</ref><ref name=Harvard1969>Apel (1969), p. 184.</ref> and the melody is obscured during the passage. The term is mostly applied to vocal music; in instrumental music such passages are called [[ornamentation (music)|ornamentation]]. 

Coloratura is often found in operatic music of the 18th and 19th centuries. Operatic roles in which coloratura plays a large part, and their singers, are also called coloratura.<ref name="NewGroveOpera">Steane, J. B.; Jander, Owen, "Coloratura" in Sadie (1992) '''1''': 907.</ref> 

== History ==

The term ''coloratura'' was first defined in several early non-Italian music dictionaries: [[Michael Praetorius]]'s ''Syntagma musicum'' (1618); [[Sébastien de Brossard]]'s ''Dictionaire de musique'' (1703); and [[Johann Gottfried Walther]]'s ''Musicalisches Lexicon'' (1732).  In these early texts "the term is dealt with briefly and always with reference to Italian usage".<ref name="NewGroveOnline">Jander, Owen; Harris, Ellen T. "Coloratura" in ''[[Grove Music Online]]'', [http://www.grovemusic.com www.grovemusic.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516041031/http://www.grovemusic.com/ |date=2008-05-16 }}. Retrieved 27 November 2006.</ref>

[[Christoph Bernhard]] (1628–1692) defined ''coloratura'' in two ways:<ref name="NewGroveOnline"/>

* [[cadenza]]: "runs which are not so exactly bound to the bar, but which often extend two, three or more bars further [and] should be made only at chief closes" (''Von der Singe-Kunst, oder Maniera'', c. 1649)
* [[diminution]]: "when an interval is altered through several shorter notes, so that, instead of one long note, a number of shorter ones rush to the next note through all kinds of progressions by step or leap" (''Tractatus compositionis'', c. 1657)

The term was never used in the most famous Italian texts on singing: [[Giulio Caccini]]'s ''Le Nuove musiche'' (1601/2); [[Pier Francesco Tosi]]'s, ''Opinioni de' cantori antichi e moderni'' (1723); [[Giovanni Battista Mancini]]'s ''Pensieri, e riflessioni pratiche sopra il canto figurato'' (1774); [[Manuel García (baritone)|Manuel García]]'s ''Mémoire sur la voix humaine'' (1841), and ''Traité complet de l’art du chant'' (1840–47); nor was it used by the English authors [[Charles Burney]] (1726–1814) and [[Henry Fothergill Chorley]] (1808–1872), both of whom wrote at length about Italian singing of a period when ornamentation was essential.<ref name="NewGroveOnline"/>

== Modern usage ==
The term ''coloratura'' is most commonly applied to the elaborate and florid figuration or ornamentation in [[Classical music|classical]] (late 18th century) and [[Romantic (music)|romantic]] (19th century, specifically ''[[bel canto]]'') vocal music. However, early music of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, and in particular, [[baroque music]] extending up to about 1750, includes a substantial body of music for which coloratura technique is required by vocalists and instrumentalists alike. In the modern musicological sense the term is therefore used to refer to florid music from all periods of music history, both vocal and instrumental.<ref name="NewGroveOnline"/> For example, in Germany the term ''coloratura'' ({{langx|de|Koloratur}}) has been applied to the stereotypical and formulaic ornamentation used in 16th‑century keyboard music written by a group of German organ composers referred to as the "[[Colorists (music)|colorists]]" ({{langx|de|Koloristen}}).<ref name=Harvard1969/>

Despite its derivation from Latin ''colorare'' ("to color"), the term does not apply to the practice of "coloring" the voice, ''i.e.'' altering the quality or [[timbre]] of the voice for expressive purposes (for example, the technique of ''[[voix sombrée]]'' used by [[Gilbert Duprez]] in the 1830s).<ref name="NewGroveOnline"/>

=== Vocal ranges ===
The term is not restricted to describing any one range of voice. All female and male voice types may achieve mastery of coloratura technique. There are coloratura parts for all voice types in different musical [[genre]]s.<ref name=NewGroveOpera/>

Nevertheless, the term ''coloratura'', when used without further qualification, normally means a [[coloratura soprano]]. This role, most famously typified by the Queen of the Night in [[Mozart]]'s ''[[The Magic Flute]]'',<ref>Randel (1986), p. 180.</ref> has a high range and requires the singer to execute with great facility elaborate ornamentation and embellishment, including running passages, [[Staccato|staccati]], and [[Trill (music)|trill]]s. A coloratura soprano has the vocal ability to produce notes above high C ([[Scientific pitch notation|C<sub>6</sub>]]) and possesses a [[tessitura]] ranging from A<sub>4</sub> to A<sub>5</sub> or higher (unlike lower sopranos whose tessitura is G<sub>4</sub>–G<sub>5</sub> or lower).{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}
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|[[Image:Final cadenza Valse Mad Scene Hamlet (piano-vocal score p292).jpg|thumbnail|500px|An example of a coloratura passage from a soprano role. It includes a more difficult variant (top stave) with a leap to a high D ([[Scientific pitch notation|D<sub>6</sub>]]). Final cadenza from the Valse in Ophélie's Mad Scene (Act IV) from the opera ''[[Hamlet (opera)|Hamlet]]'' (1868) by Ambroise Thomas ([http://imslp.org/wiki/Hamlet_(Thomas,_Ambroise) piano-vocal score], p. 292).]]
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Richard Miller names two types of soprano coloratura voices (the coloratura and the dramatic coloratura)<ref>Miller (2000), pp. 7–9.</ref> as well as a mezzo-soprano coloratura voice,<ref>Miller (2000), pp. 12–13.</ref> and although he does not mention the coloratura contralto, he includes mention of specific works requiring coloratura technique for the contralto voice.<ref>Miller (2000), p. 13.</ref>

Examples of coloratura music for different voice ranges include:

* [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s ''Allelujah'' (from ''[[Exsultate, jubilate]]'') may be arranged for and sung by a properly trained [[contralto]], [[mezzo-soprano]] or [[soprano]]. The piece was written for [[Castrato|soprano castrato]].
* The [[aria]] ''[[Messiah Part I#3|Every valley shall be exalted]]'' from [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]]'s ''[[Messiah (Handel)|Messiah]]'' is an example of a coloratura piece for [[tenor]].
* Each singer of a major role in [[Rossini]]'s operas must have a secure coloratura technique.{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}}
* Osmin, a character in Mozart's ''[[Die Entführung aus dem Serail|The Abduction from the Seraglio]]'', is a coloratura role for a [[Bass (voice type)|basso]].
* ''Agitata da due venti'' ("Agitated by two winds") a coloratura soprano aria, from [[Antonio Vivaldi]]'s opera ''[[Griselda (Vivaldi)|Griselda]]''.
* ''Naqui All'Affanno - Non Piu Mesta'' a coloratura contralto rondo, from [[Rossini]]'s opera ''[[La Cenerentola]]''.

== See also ==
* [[Bel canto]]
* [[Diatonic and chromatic#Medieval coloration|Diatonic and chromatic § Medieval coloration]]

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== Works cited ==
* Apel, Willi, ed. (1969). ''[[Harvard Dictionary of Music]]'', second edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of [[Harvard University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-674-37501-7}}.
* Miller, Richard (2000). ''Training soprano voices''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-513018-8}}.
* Randel, Don Michael, ed.; Apel, Willi, ed. (1986). ''New Harvard Dictionary of Music''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-674-61525-0}}.
* Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1992). ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Opera]]'' (four volumes). London: Macmillan. {{ISBN|978-1-56159-228-9}}.

{{Opera terms}}
{{Vocal Music}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Italian opera terminology]]
[[Category:Ornamentation]]