Simply put: melisma is a singing style stretching one syllable over several notes. Often resulting in one “vocal run” across notes (but of one syllable). This can thus be contrasted to “syllabic” singing, with each syllable representing a note. The latter, syllabic singing, is much more common in large parts of the world, including in Western pop music.
On the other extreme, though, are regions in this world where “melismatic” singing is very common, even close to “the norm” and have a long tradition: the Middle East, North Africa, parts of Eastern Africa, India, but also the Greek Orthodox world, and the South of Spain, with Flamenco as known "folk music"/world music example.
Its origins is dated at least to 3.000 years back.
In these regions melismatic singing has a century-long tradition, with dominance in certain (sub)genres, especially more “religious” singing or “free” singing, less bound to certain rhythmic patterns. Within Flamenco, some subgenres have a fixed, faster rhythm and therefore allow less melismatic singing, though some skilled singers still can pull it off. Outside of these regions and influences, it has somewhat of a tradition in singing in the Celtic and Slavic world, in some aspects and song forms.
To most people’s ears, in its rough form, though, melisma reminds of North African and Arabic music, though it is also found in Jewish singing, and in Ethiopia, which has a long Christian tradition. There is thus no specific religious connection, also as it became common in European Gregorian chanting as well, though with different “feels” (more intense in North Africa).
TOWARD POP
Global Spanish influence, and Islamic influence, might have helped spread melisma wider, though often mixed with local precedents. After all: it does not seem so strange a thought to “lengthen” vocally a syllable or word over several notes, for an effect of “intensity” for instance.
This effect of “intensity” made it common in Black music in the Americas as well. From religious Gospel to secular Soul and R&B, and related genres. Again, like in Flamenco, more in the “slower”, less rhythmically bound genres, with “freer” singing.
Melismatic singing can thus be found here and there in songs by Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, and Aretha Franklin, and even more in songs by Whitney Houston, Deniece Williams, Mariah Carey, Luther Vandross, as it entered more the Western pop mainstream. Whitney Houston’s mass global hit ‘I will always love you’ is said to be the song that popularized “melismatic” singing most.. even among people who did not know the word “melisma”.
Houston’s song is a good example, becoming especially powerful with actually good singers with extraordinary vocal reach: like Whitney Houston, but also Mariah Carey, or Luther Vandross, to name some known ones, using melisma.
In this Black “soul” music, it is often associated with the more-or-less spiritual concept of “soul” itself, due to its intense feel, though not the only component – of course – of “soulful” singing, but an important one.
Even more structurally, also in secular “pop” music in e.g. Ethiopia – Ethio-pop - melisma is used, as in Spain (even in “flamenco pop”), in Hindustani Pop or in modernized pop-like music in North Africa (like Rai) and the Arab world.
I myself tried to sing melimatically too, of course (e.g. in the chorus of my song "Mañana Mañana"). I found it was - as so often - not as easy as it seemed: a skill requiring both experience and commitment, really only learned within a culture itself. Others only can (maybe) come close.
In other contexts, the “trance-like” feel of melisma and multi-notes syllable has a kind of religious function, in spiritual contexts, such as in the Islamic world (think of the mosques’ Muezzin chanter calling for prayer), Jewish services, or Gregorian chants. Also in the Hindu world of India there are examples of this.
RHYTHM
Though I like all music, I consider myself a “rhythm man” (I play percussion, for one). An interesting question I therefore find is in how far melisma in singing can be combined well with a groovy rhythm. Vaguely I know this to be the case, finding the challenge of fitting melisma in the rhythm of singers intriguing.
Good examples I know from Stevie Wonder, Reggae songs by soulful singers like Alton Ellis, Dennis Brown, Don Carlos, and Ijahman Levi (example: song Moulding), but in fact Ijahman Levi uses melisma in several songs.
Also other singing styles found within Reggae “echo” melismatic traits, certainly the “Waterhouse style” (named after a ghetto area in Kingston, Jamaica) “wailing” chant, with some hints towards “yodeling”, but likewise to soulful melisma, by singers like Michael Rose and Yami Bolo, and in the band Black Uhuru (where Michael Rose long sang)
In Flamenco, it is common to restrain/keep from melisma in faster, more rhythmically bound subgenres of Flamenco – sticking there more to syllabic note-per-syllable singing, although very skilled singers, such as Arcángel, are revered for “fitting” melisma in the rhythm/beat (“compás” in Spanish). In Flamenco this skill is praised as “velocidad” (literal: “velocity/speed”): fitting melismatic singing in faster rhythms.
Several already mentioned Reggae artists proved as well that melismatic singing can be "fitted" well in a good Reggae groove (Black Uhuru!), as did Soul or R&B singers.
Also Ethiopian music genres with strong rhythms often combine successfully with variants of melismatic singing, often faster types.
It is thus not restricted to “ballad”-like songs, or slow Soul or R&B. Some Soul singers made upbeat, “dance” song using melisma, such as Beyoncé and Leona Lewis.
So, interesting from the musical perspective is its link with “rhythm”. In fact, one can argue that melisma relates more to relatively “rhythmic” music, as also Spanish folk music is known (compared to the rest of Europe). Melisma and flexible rhythms seemed made for each other.
“Straighter” rhythms as in the Sub-Saharan African tradition, i.e. clave-based polyrhythmic pieces, with its rhythmic “tight complexity” and call-and-response, allows less melismatic singing, or extended notes.
Cuba inherited that tradition through its African-descended population, mainly from that “clave-based” polyrhythmic cultural region (Congo region, Yorubaland, Calabar), while singing more similar to melisma can be found in the (guitar-based) “Punto” or "Punto Guajiro" genre in rural Cuba, which is said to represent influences from other historical heritages in Cuba: of the Canary islands and South Spain, including Flamenco-like vocal influences.
To a lesser degree, these also show in vocal parts in Son and Salsa, mixed in with African (esp. Congo) influences.
Part of the variation in singing – of say: a lead singer between the chorus - is also covered as African languages are mostly tonal, so “up and down” movements are inherent to the languages, whereas in languages like Arab and Spanish this should be deliberately searched by own intonation.
COMPENSATION
That is also an interesting way to look at it, and I think an interesting conclusion: melisma as musical/vocal “compensation” for speaking a non-tonal language, like e.g. Arab, Hindi, English, or Spanish, thus adding desired vocal variety and fluctuation. Bantu languages, for instance, have that inherently, but this vocal varying is sought by in other languages too, apparently.
Always pleasant to notice that there’s more that unites humanity worldwide than divides it, which at the same time – as a nice irony - translates in quite different cultures and music styles.. This only makes this world more varied and interesting.
We’re not the same, but we’re equally creative. Something like that..
