The patter song is characterized by a moderately fast to very fast tempo with a rapid succession of rhythmic patterns in which each syllable of text corresponds to one note (there are few or no melismatic passages). It is a staple of comic opera, especially Gilbert and Sullivan, but it has also been used in musicals and other situations.
The lyric of a patter song generally features tongue-twisting rhyming text, with alliterative words and other consonant or vowel sounds that are intended to be entertaining to listen to at rapid speed, and the musical accompaniment is lightly orchestrated and fairly simple, to emphasize the text. The song is often intended as a showpiece for a comic character, usually a bass or baritone (with or without choral interjection). The singer should be capable of excellent enunciation in order to show the song to maximum effect.
Famous quotes containing the words patter and/or song:
“Houndsditch was ... a crumbling and smoke-grimed necropolis in boarded windows, mummified everywhere by old railings, stagnant air, and cobwebs, where draughty hallways reek with the smell of stale cabbage, Blakean children weep soot, and merchants patter with Mammon and make God evanescent.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)
“In almost all climes the tortoise and the frog are among the precursors and heralds of this season, and birds fly with song and glancing plumage, and plants spring and bloom, and winds blow, to correct this slight oscillation of the poles and preserve the equilibrium of nature.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)