Roulade

What it means

A roulade is a fast, rolling sequence of notes that embellishes a melody note or connects two notes with each other. The name comes from the French rouler, “to roll,” and describes the movement: a run that rolls over several notes.

The term comes from vocal practice and there designates a figure sung on one syllable. It thus stands close to coloratura; where a distinction is made, roulade means rather the continuous run, while coloratura forms the umbrella term for all agile ornaments. There is no fixed separation, and the words are often used synonymously.

The expression is also used for instruments, there for fast runs of an ornamental character.

In the notation

Roulades stand written out in small note values, usually beamed and under a slur. In vocal parts, the slur shows that the notes are to be sung on one syllable. Where the figure is not part of the notated text but an addition by the performer — as in repeated sections of older music — it does not appear in the notation at all.

Musical use

Roulades belong to the opera and oratorio practice of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. They embellish arias, fill cadenzas, and connect widely separated notes. In the repeat of a section it was usual for singers to add such figures themselves — a procedure belonging to the performance practice of the time and practised again today in historically oriented performances.

In the bel canto of the nineteenth century, roulades belonged among the hallmarks of virtuoso soprano and tenor parts. It demands great agility of the voice, clear intonation of every single note, and a calm, well-supported breath.

Performance practice

Practise slowly and watch for evenness; a roulade works only if every note is there. Plan breath and goal note before you begin. Keep the vowel, or the tone production, the same over the whole figure, so that it is heard as one movement. And let the figure run toward its goal note, instead of reeling it off uniformly.