Melisma

Melisma is the singing of several pitches on a single syllable. It can ornament a melody or serve as a defining feature of a vocal style.

Syllabic setting: A vocal setting that assigns one note to each syllable. It contrasts with melisma, which stretches one syllable across multiple notes.
Gregorian chant: The Latin liturgical chant tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. Its Mass chants include syllabic, neumatic, and highly melismatic passages.
Syllabic singing: A style in which each syllable is sung to one note. It uses the opposite note-to-syllable pattern from melismatic singing.
Gregorian chant notation: Systems of written signs used to preserve and transmit Gregorian chant melodies. Its neumes provide historical evidence for how chant melismas were grouped and remembered.
Neume: A notation sign used in early chant to represent one or more notes. Some neumes indicate groups of pitches sung on a single syllable.
Organum: A medieval form of polyphony that adds one or more voices to chant. In Notre-Dame organum, a sustained chant note can support an elaborate melisma above it.
Neumatic singing: A style in which a syllable is sung across a small group of notes. It occupies a middle ground between one note per syllable and extended melisma.
Musica enchiriadis: A ninth-century Latin treatise on music and early polyphony. It documents early organum, where extended note groups appear over sustained chant.
Vocal ornament: A decorative alteration or elaboration of a vocal melody. Melisma is one way singers ornament a melodic line.
Qawwali: A South Asian devotional music tradition associated with Sufi shrines. Qawwali singers use melismatic improvisation to intensify repeated poetic lines.

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