tessitura

[ tes-i-toor-uh; Italian tes-see-too-rah ]

noun

, plural tes·si·tu·ras, tes·si·tu·re [tes-i-, toor, -ey, tes-see-, too, -, r, e].

1. the general pitch level or average range of a vocal or instrumental part in a musical composition:

   an uncomfortably high tessitura.

tessitura

/ ˌtɛsɪˈtʊərə /

noun

1. the general pitch level of a piece of vocal music

   an uncomfortably high tessitura

2. the compass or range of a voice

Word History and Origins

Origin of tessitura¹

1890–95; < Italian: literally, texture < Latin textūra; texture

Word History and Origins

Origin of tessitura¹

Italian: texture, from Latin textura; see texture

Example Sentences

After singing Caláf, which is a pretty hard tessitura, it’s very demanding.

From Los Angeles Times

Unfortunately, Villazón struggled with the low-for-him tessitura; his voice, tired and frayed, often floated around the center of the pitch when he wasn’t tweaking melodies to suit his range.

From New York Times

The way Adès pitches the violin writing high up, almost daring the soloist to sustain it, recalls the extreme tessitura for the soprano role of Ariel in his opera “The Tempest.”

From New York Times

It’s challenging to learn, because it changes meter every bar pretty much, and the aria has a quite high tessitura; it sits consistently too much up at the top of the staff.

From New York Times

In addition to running the Museum of Chinese in America, Yao lectures at Yale’s David Geffen School of Drama, serves as board secretary for the arts nonprofit organization Tessitura Network and sits on the McGraw Hill equity advisory board.

From Washington Post