A recitative is not a literary device but rather a musical device developed in Italy in 1600, during the transition from Renaissance music to the Baroque. Around 1600, recitatives were developed, which allowed stories to be sung, not just spoken. Music, not speech, was used to move the action forward. Recitatives, the first operas, allowed dramas to be entirely sung. With the recitative, the expressive power of the individual voice was emphasized. 

Morrison takes this early opera form and adapts it to tell the story of Twyla and Roberta. In particular, the expressive power of Twyla's voice is given full range. This is ironic given that Twyla strongly identifies with Maggie, a mute. And yet, the structure of the story, with it being divided into five sections, allows for sizable time jumps that quickly move through the lives of these two women, from childhood to adulthood, just like a recitative allows an opera to cover a lot of ground as it allows a story to be moved along quickly, through music.