Roulade (music)

[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.

[1] The 19th century Spanish music theorist José Joaquín de Virués y Spínola wrote that, "The Roulade is a smooth but rapid course of notes interspersed into the course of an air without breaking the time or disturbing the subject matter of the composition.

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.

[9] Rousseau wrote: "As violent passion has a tendency to choke the voice, so in the expression of it by musical sounds, a roulade, which is a succession of notes rapidly uttered on one vowel, has often more powerful effect than distinct articulation.

[12] A line in the Steely Dan track, Your Gold Teeth, remarks, "Even Cathy Berberian knows there's one roulade she can't sing"