To: Vocalist <vocalist>
From: Naomi Gurt Lind
Subject: re: singing in Finnish
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

>But I still say Finnish lends itself well to singing--like
>Italian: pure and simple vowels, no harsh consonants, no consonant
>clusters, and very phonetic.
>
>And the music is so fabulous--I encourage anyone to give it a try!

Yes, fabulous music, much of it hardly known! (Yrjo Kilpinen, Toivo
Kuulla, Jan Sibelius, et al) But translating Finnish to English without
having some prior Finnish language study is IMPOSSIBLE. A word to
adventurous singers: make sure you have a native Finn to help you with the
poetry before you undertake to learn Finnish repertoire! (Not to be
discouraging: it's worth the effort!)

Naomi Gurt Lind