--- Ingo Duckerschein <ingo_d@y...> wrote: --- Ingo Duckerschein <ingo_d@y...> wrote: There's a > German TV presenter for Bavaria, Caroline Reiber, > who has a tremendous > trill in her 'r'. Well, Caroline certainly knows how to make us rrememberr herr :)
Dear Cindy, John, Ingo and co vocalisters,
I was a quite bussy in the last days, so I did not respond immediately. Apart from that, I was a bit puzzled by the original mail, becasue I had the feeling Cindy knew exactly how a German 'r' should be pronunciated, how it is pronunciated in Germany and how it used to be pronunciated, yet was confronted with the problem that some teachers and singers in the U.S. for no apparant reason started to use the Englsh 'r' instead, and wanted to know how teachers and singers in the U.S. were treating c.q. teaching their 'r''s.
I think most of us agree on the fact that, unlike in the English, the German 'r' should be a rolling 'r', although the amount of rolling varies greatly. It is basically a softly rolling r, produced by putting your tongue on the part of your palatum behind your upper front teeth. If you (or at least if a German speaker) produce(s) a very soft rolling 'r', it sounds like a schwa, but is produced completely diferently. I.m.o this is to prefer to a flipped 'r', that is, if I understand it well, produced with the tongue a little bit more backwards. The softly rolling 'r' does not interfere in any way with other consonants or vowels. (I disagree with Cindy though, that consonants (not even the 'h') are a good way to solve onset or attack problems.)
The basic rolling pronunciation of the 'r' is influenced by many things, of which the most important ones are the consonants and vowels the 'r' is surrounded by, emphasising, redundancy and volume.
If you want to hear a perfect example of how it should be done i.m.o., you should listen to Fritz Wunderlich's DGG recording of the beautiful Miller's daughter, especially in the first song, 'Das Wandern'.
You will hear that he variies the amount of rolling greatly, but always exactly in tune with the music and the feelings to be expressed, and always perfectly understandible. No rule (like 'when singing piano we always have the emphasise consonants') Wunderlich follows rigidly, and that is why it is so perfect. (We could argue about his interpretation, but he was still learning how to sing Lieder at that point, his Salzburg and Edinborough recitals already show where he was heading to).
Finally I would like to remember the wise words Wunderlich borrowed from his teacher 'the words should melt in your mouth like caviar': I think they say it all.
Best greetings,
Dre
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