They diverged from the Florentine style by increasing the contrast between the arias and the recitatives, allowing the arias to interrupt dramatic continuity, and rendering the recitatives more speechlike and less interesting musically.
While the story of an opera was advanced through recitative (dialogue sung in quick, speechlike rhythms), the arias, by contrast, were dramatically static, allowing individual characters to reflect upon the immediately preceding action, after which they perhaps left the stage.
Arias might assume different moods and were classified as aria cantabile (lyric aria), aria di bravura (virtuoso aria), aria parlante (speechlike aria), and so on.
Those who had grown up with the operas of Jean-Baptiste Lully were baffled by the complexity of Rameau's orchestration, the intensity of his accompanied recitatives (speechlike sections), and the rich and often dissonant diversity of his harmonies.
Had Partch really stayed true to his philosophy of speechlike song?
Spalding had written the lyrics to fit precisely into the rhythm, but Nascimento had sung his part rubato — a speechlike tempo, slowing slightly and speeding up — and Spalding, in singing her part, had followed his lead.
In 1911 Bartók wrote his only opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, an allegorical treatment of the legendary wife murderer with a score permeated by characteristics of traditional Hungarian folk songs, especially in the speechlike rhythms of the text setting.
Mr. Lewis's dark hues and graceful layering underscored the Adagio's sense of mystery, and his phrasing magnified the speechlike starts and stops that give it an almost confessional quality.
Under the direction of Steven Fox, the ensemble's artistic director, tempos also took on a certain speechlike freedom that gave the text its rightful primacy and allowed the music to hover over key words.
Even in the purely instrumental movements of the Ninth, there appeared to be words encrypted in the music, so declamatory and speechlike were some phrases.
Throughout, Mr. Barenboim kept the patter of speechlike recitative unhurried: a boon to listeners with supertitles to follow (or slight Italian).
