The dictionary definition of melisma is: “A passage of several notes sung to one syllable of text, as in Gregorian chant.” My definition? Read on…

The standard meaning of melisma involves singing a single syllable of a lyric being sung using several different notes on the scale. (Think of the old 50s’ song…”Glooooooorrria.”) It can be traced back to Gregorian chants (as mentioned above), the music of India, and many other cultures over the centuries. In our modern era of music, it was also used in blues and jazz. The real travesty has been the past 10-15 years of popular music. Nowadays, any third-rate Top 40 hack (and hack wannabes) use it constantly, as though it is some measure of artistic singing talent. Far from it! With the advent of the Autotune device, which is a digital delay unit that corrects a singer’s pitch, it sounds really nasty in today’s popular music. Even the “boy toy bands” use it, along with all the painted up diva hussies that the record labels insist the masses want to listen to.

Therefore, I define melisma as: a disease; a singing disorder. Unfortunately, time is the only cure for it, and my only prescription would be a set of earplugs when you step into the mall. We’ll have the last laugh when all these so-called singers use up their 15 minutes of fame (which is 14 minutes to many, in my opinion) and become tabloid fodder. And melisma will go back to being a curious inflection a vocalist uses as decoration, not something to beat us over the head with, ad nauseum, in pursuit of the latest Top 40 hit and fashion trend.