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Date sent: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 11:08:50 EST
Subject: Re: Misheard Song Lyrics - English Diction
To: vocalist
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In a message dated 02/07/2000 9:43:46 AM Central Standard Time,
jjh-at-NebrWesleyan.edu writes:

<< I can't wait to see my Diction class tomorrow! We're starting to discuss
"How to Sing in English and Still be Understood," and this is a perfect way
to start the class. >>

Great! We've come back to the practical application of this topic. I was
trying to figure out how to do that and still discuss this very amusing (at
least to me) topic.

Malachy McCourt, actor and brother of Pulitzer-Prize winning author Frank
McCourt (Angela's Ashes), wrote a book called "A Monk Swimming", a title of
which stems from his childhood misinterpretation of the Hail Mary ...

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee - blessed art thou, a monk
swimming ..."

But maybe we can segue into a discussion on English diction ... I have a
French student and getting her to sing in English is really interesting --
she tends to over-open vowels, really distorting their pronunciation. I have
to find French equivalents and have her rewrite the word so that she can give
it a better pronunciation - for example, having her write the word "say" as
"se' " (that was supposed to be an acute accent). This seems to work well
with her.

I have other students who go to a high school where their chorus director has
them modify vowels starting at about C5 (C above middle C - is that number
right?) and so their vowels in ALL languages come out weird and they wind up
with too much space. I fix them, but then they get yelled at when they come
back to class with their vowels in a non-distorted place.

Diction is a topic which thrills me - my German diction class went pretty
well last semester - I learned a lot from it. I'm supposed to teach French
diction next spring.

Chris Thomas
Mezzo-Soprano
Wauwatosa, WI

"I love to sing-a, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a"