In this case, I'm pretty sure the reason Purcell set it as "ech'ing" instead of "echoing" was because he only had room for two syllables instead of three. It is quite common for certain words in English to be shortened by a syllable when set to music (another frequent example is "e'er" instead of "ever"). I agree with the suggestion to sing it as "eh-kwing" - that way the listeners will still understand the word is echoing.
Jennifer
> but I suspect I > would probably sing "ech'ing" as "Eh-kwing" with as > long a "w" as I dared, and give it an o-ish tint, > even though > the O is omitted in print. I might even slip in a > brief O sound, > depending on the shape of the melody. "Eh-king" just > wouldn't be > English as I know it, nor would it sound good from a > singing > perspective. I suspect Purcell or his printer were > trying to > convey something like what I just said, with a > single apostrophe.
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