Sprechgesang

In music, a type of vocal technique, a hybrid of pure song and speech. It consists of recitation on approximate pitches, notated usually by cross-shaped symbols instead of usual notes. Although the pitches are approximate, the rhythm tends to be notated by traditional means. It was first introduced in Engelbert Humperdinck's melodrama Königskinder in 1910. Schoenberg used it in several works, including Pierrot lunaire (1912), as did Berg in his operas Wozzeck (1920) and Lulu (1935).