| Date sent: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 11:08:50 EST Subject: Re: Misheard Song Lyrics - English Diction To: vocalist Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>
In a message dated 02/07/2000 9:43:46 AM Central Standard Time, jjh-at-NebrWesleyan.edu writes:
<< I can't wait to see my Diction class tomorrow! We're starting to discuss "How to Sing in English and Still be Understood," and this is a perfect way to start the class. >>
Great! We've come back to the practical application of this topic. I was trying to figure out how to do that and still discuss this very amusing (at least to me) topic.
Malachy McCourt, actor and brother of Pulitzer-Prize winning author Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes), wrote a book called "A Monk Swimming", a title of which stems from his childhood misinterpretation of the Hail Mary ...
"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee - blessed art thou, a monk swimming ..."
But maybe we can segue into a discussion on English diction ... I have a French student and getting her to sing in English is really interesting -- she tends to over-open vowels, really distorting their pronunciation. I have to find French equivalents and have her rewrite the word so that she can give it a better pronunciation - for example, having her write the word "say" as "se' " (that was supposed to be an acute accent). This seems to work well with her.
I have other students who go to a high school where their chorus director has them modify vowels starting at about C5 (C above middle C - is that number right?) and so their vowels in ALL languages come out weird and they wind up with too much space. I fix them, but then they get yelled at when they come back to class with their vowels in a non-distorted place.
Diction is a topic which thrills me - my German diction class went pretty well last semester - I learned a lot from it. I'm supposed to teach French diction next spring.
Chris Thomas Mezzo-Soprano Wauwatosa, WI
"I love to sing-a, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a"
| |