"Lloyd W. Hanson" wrote:
> Consonants can be the vehicle that tends to break up this "vowel > line" but if they are done correctly, they will not. But consonants > do not make up the musical line. The musical line is produced by a > series of connected vowels, not by a series of connected consonants, > regardless of how liquid or phonated those consonants might be > produced.
Any pianists out there who'd like to jump in?
As we all know, the piano cannot help but die away on every note from the moment that note is struck. However, a good pianist will maintain that s/he can turn out a pretty passable legato, and this is without recourse to a single connected sound that changes pitch without letting go of the tone. Of course, piano legato is produced by slight overlapping of the sounds where possible, but the tones are still dying.
I think what causes consonants to break up the legato line is what happens when singers unwittingly sing like pianos (very slightly). If the singer momentarily drops the vowel tone to go and do another, to wit, a consonant, this break with legato will be perceived. It's interesting how often this happens without realising. If the singer makes a concentrated effort to maintain the tone right up to and into the consonant and out the other side, I see no reason why the consonant should break up the vowel line, even when it is unvoiced and has length, like ss or ff.
If you don't like imagery or analogy, skip the next para.
Two things that spring to mind are, first, your voice is driving through a good broad tunnel; tucked away in the walls and floor and ceiling of this tunnel are those mechanisms which make the various consonants - a bit like an inside-out Swiss Army Knife :o) They aren't dangling down in your way to impede your progress ready to be made use of when they're needed. Come the time for the consonant, and they snap sharply in, yet your voice carries on driving firmly through them without braking (I was somewhat put off driving through the Mersey Tunnel after thinking of this one!) The other analogy is that of your PC which has been set to run one program on its own, be it some complicated mathematical working out or perhaps Dogz, and you briefly call up your address book to make a phone call or address and envelope: many programs will continue working smoothly behind with scarcely a blink.
You really _can_ have a good ol' "dig in" on a consonant without spoiling the integrity of the vowel line.
On the subject of colouring vowels, do you think this is more an Italian/German phenomenon? With the recent death of Suzanne Danco there have been a lot of recordings of hers played on UK radio this past two weeks, and I was struck with how different the French sound often seems to be, with a greater differentiation and definition of the vowels. Lloyd, do you find the "French Way" different from the Italian, and if so, do you think they are both suited to the performance of music from each other's tradition?
Linda
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