Natural wrote :
<<The meaning of "pure" as applied to vowels depends on the field of
discourse. In Linguistics (or more accurately, in phonology) a pure vowel is
any sound produced with an open airway and no movement. So, not only do the
French u and eu qualify, but so do the nasal vowels and the final -e when
sounded.>>
Thank you ! ;-)
<<But I think the point about some vowels being more naturally resonant than
others is correct - try singing the sound of
German or French final -e (it's called a "schwa") - but sing it long - don't
let it drift to an ah or eh - and then sing an ah
as in "father" - you'll hear the difference resonance instantly.>>
There is no problem in sustaining a final "mute e". You simply sing
something between a closed and an open "eu" (German ö). Fauré loves to have
the singer sustain a "e muet" for three bars!
Only the accepted or recommended proportion of each (open or closed) has
changed along the years. In Fauré's time, the "e muet" is told to have been
sung more closed. Nowadays, we sing it closer to the open "eu". The closed
version would sound a bit "ampoulé", "précieux", alla Bernac...
Of course, this "mute e" is not mute any longer! Just as a German short
vowel is not short any longer when sustained over a whole bar - but it can
keep its open quality.
In English, you face the same problems, for example in Quilter's "Now sleeps
the crimson petal":
1) you must hold "slip" over a whole bar without making it sound like
"sleep";
2) you must sing "bo-som" on two quarters, though the final vowel is a schwa
in the spoken language.
<<I think you are right about Italian having 7 vowels (at least). The idea
that there are exactly 5 almost certainly comes from
classical Latin, which (supposedly) had exactly 5 vowels>>
Great! For now on, please substitute "the 5 Latin vowels" for "the 5 Italian
vowels"! ;-)
<<The question of what is beautiful, of course, is subjective, but when
singing in one's native language, I surmise that it usually boils down to ho
w much one can bend one's native speech habits in the direction of "the 5
pure vowels" and still be understood and appropriate for the music.>>
Do you mean "the 5 Latin vowels"? ;-)
I really cannot understand why a French snger should want to bend his
singing toward the 5 *Latin* vowels, since it is as easy and pure and
beautiful and whatever you want to sing a [y] (French "u") than to sing a
[u] (French "ou") or a [i].
The vowel [e] itself just stands between the [i] and the [a], so that it
could be dismissed. You can produce a [u] just by rounding the lips over a
[o], and a [o] just by rounding the lips over a [a]. This leaves us with two
vowels, [a] and [i]. Would they be the 2 *Greek* vowels? ;-D
BTW, a Frenchman would rather perceive [u] as a non-pure vowel, since it is
written with two letters in French, while [y] is written with the letter "u"
alone. And indeed, French singers have certainly more problems with the [u]
sound than with the [y] sound.
| Alain Zürcher, Paris, France
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