The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
n. A form of dramatic declamation between singing and speaking, in which the speaker uses lilt and rhythm but not precise pitches.
Word Usage
"The "rude mechanicals" rehearsing their impossibly bad "Pyramus and Thisbe" tragedy have music that makes fun of everything from Schoenberg's "sprechstimme" to Donizetti's mad scene from "Lucia di Lammermoor.""