accompagnato

Accompagnato is an Italian musical term meaning "accompanied." In vocal music, it denotes a recitative that is accompanied by an instrumental ensemble rather than by a continuo alone. In Italian Baroque scores, recitatives are typically categorized as secco (dry) or accompagnato (accompanied).

Recitativo accompagnato allows richer harmonic support and timbral variety; the orchestra or ensemble often includes strings and continuo, occasionally winds or a small chamber group. The accompaniment reinforces the vocal line and can follow the rhetoric of the text with flexible rhythm, sometimes slowing for emphasis or accelerating to match dramatic intensity. It is mostly used in moments of heightened emotion, important plot points, or transitions to arias or choruses.

Historical context: The form emerged in the late 16th and early 17th centuries with the rise of Baroque Italian opera and cantata. Composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, Alessandro Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach employed accompagnato recitatives to provide dramatic pacing and emotional nuance beyond secco recitative.

Instrumentation and usage: In scores, accompaniment can be provided by a continuo group with bass instrument and harmony instruments, or by a larger string or orchestral ensemble. The term is used to distinguish recitatives with orchestral support from secco recitatives, and it remains a standard descriptor in musicology and critical editions of Baroque works.