Sprechstimme

Speech-voice — a vocal technique developed by Schoenberg for Pierrot Lunaire (1912) in which the performer uses pitches notated in the score as approximate guides, but realises them as a kind of heightened speech rather than sung tone. The voice touches the notated pitch and immediately slides away, neither singing nor speaking in the conventional sense. Schoenberg notated Sprechstimme with a special notehead (an 'x'). The technique was highly influential and used by many subsequent composers.

Sprechstimme in Pierrot is famously difficult to notate and interpret. Schoenberg's own instructions emphasise that the pitches are not to be ignored (as in pure speech) but neither are they to be sustained as sung tone. The result should feel like inflected, musical speech — heightened beyond normal delivery but never operatic. The exact realisation varies between performers; study recordings by different singers to understand the range of legitimate interpretation.