To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
From: Barbara Miller
Subject: singing in other languages (was: Solveig's song pronunciation)
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

In response to my comment that:

><< Yes, I have found myself having to work to get past a level of annoyance
> when I hear non-English-speaking singers sing with a very heavy accent
> (just as a German-speaking student I knew admitted she was annoyed hearing
> American singers butchering German), and
> >>

Axwell-at-aol.com replies:

> I have not found this. Foreign speakers are annoyed at the accent when
>english speakers sing in their language. When foreign speakers sing english
>with an accent, Americans tend to find this "charming".
>

which has caused me to reflect on my original comment. Indeed, I had not
been terribly put off by accented singing in English until I was listening
to a particular recording one evening and was happily enjoying the soprano
and guitar in various other languages, until three songs in English came up
and something really bothered me about it, which surprised me at the time.
I decided to treat that experience as the cautionary one that would induce
me to make extra effort to learn proper diction in the foreign languages
that I like to sing in. And I never listened to that recording again,
until now, because I wanted to know what bothered me so much about it. I
am now convinced that it must have had something to do with another recent
topic on the list (Women's Business), because, while I wish I could
understand the singer better, I don't resent the performance as I did that
time.

I tested my reaction further by bringing out an LP I bought at a very cut
rate when LP's were being cleared from second-hand shops but have never
listened to: Charles Ives songs sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. I had
bought it as something of a curiosity: a German singer whose diction is
held up by Germans as ideal (so much so as to seem mannered to some native
speakers) singing songs that I think of as intrinsically American. As with
Elly Ameling's performance of "Memories", I am finding the pronunciations
of some words a little unusual (he does shine, of course, in the German
texts that Ives set) but I'm enjoying the performances on the whole.

So I would say that I have to take my proper place among Americans who find
accented English "charming", except that I don't think I do, unless it
somehow helps to reinforce the personality of the performance in some way.
Ameling's enthusiastic performance of "Memories" comes out in the
"charming" way she speaks, so it works for me, although if I didn't already
know the text it could be a problem because it really is difficult to
understand.

But I will stop believing that I am annoyed by accents. Which I am sure
that Vocalisters from other parts of the English-speaking world find
somewhat amusing, as I have been using American songs and an American
diction as the model. Yes, I know that what I am using as my norm is very
much of an accent to your ears. (As is very obvious to me whenever I hear
an actor in a BBC production working hard to produce an American accent for
a character. It took me a while to figure out why it never quite works; I
finally decided that, while none of the actual sounds are incorrect, it has
something to do with how the sound is produced. Anyone else notice this,
or see it as something different?)

Barb Miller