I am reading Maritime Folk Songs by Helen Creighton. There is an introductory section written by Kenneth Peacock.

Does anyone know what fioritura means in this context:

"The fioritura style is most difficult to put into notation, and the utmost care was taken to render the ornamentation as faithfully as possible."


One definition I found is ""Fioritura" is the name given to the flowery, embellished vocal line found in many arias from nineteenth-century opera. It is derived from the Italian fiore, meaning "flower"."

I find it unlikely that there is much in common between an operatic style and some fisherman singing a folksong recorded in the 1950'ss, But what do I know? I think that he is just saying that there was something that could not be captured by the musical notation of the melody.