To: "VOCALIST" <vocalist>
Subject: Re: Senior Recital Reperiore--Scandinavian rep.
Date sent: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 17:55:16 -0500
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

> Well, I've sung in Estonian, which is very close to Finnish, and while it
may
> be phonetically consistent and therefore easy to learn, I don't find it
> particularly easy to sing.
> Chris Thomas

Hi Chris,

Your story reminds me of my first Estonian experience. Estonian is not
quite as simple as Finnish, in my mind, with a few more complicated sounds.
There's one sound in particular that I just couldn't get right.

I was told after performing that I sounded like a native of some remote
island off the coast of Estonia. I think this was meant to be very
humourous, but I took it as a huge compliment that I sounded like any kind
of Estonian at all!

It's true, the combination of sounds in Estonian and Finnish are very
different than any Indo-European language, so they might take some time
getting used to. 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!

Alleson Aering