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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