page_title: Patter song
section_title: Gilbert and Sullivan patter songs
hierarchical_section_title: Patter song / History / Gilbert and Sullivan patter songs
caption_attribution_description: English: W. S. Gilbert's "Bab" drawing of the modern major general, c. 1880
context_page_description: The patter song is characterised by a moderately fast to very fast tempo with a rapid succession of rhythmic patterns in which each syllable of text corresponds to one note. It is a staple of comic opera, especially Gilbert and Sullivan, but it has also been used in musicals and elsewhere.
  The lyric of a patter song generally features tongue-twisting rhyming text, with alliterative words and other consonant or vowel sounds that are intended to be entertaining to listen to at rapid speed. The musical accompaniment is lightly orchestrated and fairly simple, to emphasise the text. The song is often intended as a showpiece for a comic character, usually a bass or baritone. The singer should be capable of excellent enunciation, to sing the song to maximum effect.
context_section_description: W. S. Gilbert wrote several opera parodies before he moved on to comic operas with Arthur Sullivan.  Sullivan was also familiar with Italian opera and included a patter song in his first comic opera, Cox and Box (1867). George Bernard Shaw, in his capacity as a music critic, praised "the time-honored lilt which Sir Arthur Sullivan, following the example of Mozart and Rossini, chose for the lists of accomplishments of the Major-General in The Pirates or the Colonel in Patience."   Well-known examples of rapid-fire, tongue-tripping Gilbert and Sullivan patter songs are:
  Major-General Stanley's song, "I am the very model of a modern Major-General" in Act 1 of The Pirates of Penzance (1879);
  the Lord Chancellor's "Nightmare song", "When you're lying awake" in Act 2 of Iolanthe (1882);
  the Sorcerer's song, "My Name is John Wellington Wells" in Act 1 of The Sorcerer (1877);
  the trio "My eyes are fully open to my awful situation" in Act 2 of Ruddigore (1887), which contains the lines "This particularly rapid, unintelligible patter/ Isn't generally heard, and if it is, it doesn't matter"; and
  the Colonel's song "If you want a receipt for that popular mystery" in Act 1 of Patience (1881).
  Some numbers in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon are classified as patter songs by aficionados, although they may not contain all of the attributes listed in the definition above. These are often songs telling how the character rose to an undeserved distinguished position, or they may contain a catalogue or list. A similar example is found in the middle section, starting “È questo l'odontalgico”, of Doctor Dulcamara's "Udite, Udite, o rustici" in Act 1 of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore (1832), a work that Gilbert had burlesqued early in his career in Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack.  This was not intended to be sung at great speed and is thus more of a precursor of, for example, "When I, good friends, was called to the bar" (Trial by Jury) or "As some day it may happen" (The Mikado), than are the examples of the "rapid-fire" patter above. Most of the Gilbert and Sullivan patter songs are solos for the principal comedian in the cast and were originally performed by George Grossmith.  Anna Russell's "How to write your own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera" contains an affectionate parody of a Gilbert and Sullivan patter song.
caption: The Major-General (a patter-singing character in The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan) depicted in a drawing by W. S. Gilbert[10]
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