Dre, I wonder if the soft rolling 'r' can be a little related to the soft Dutch 'g'? That sound is velar rather that palatal but I think the principle of production is the same? Not that this is of any use whatsoever to anyone, though who knows? john (?)
At 08:04 AM 10/25/00 -0700, you wrote: >--- Ingo Duckerschein <ingo_d@y...> wrote: >--- Ingo Duckerschein <ingo_d@y...> wrote: >There's a > German TV presenter for Bavaria, Caroline >Reiber, > who has a tremendous >> trill in her 'r'. >Well, Caroline certainly knows how to make us >rrememberr herr :) > >Dear Cindy, John, Ingo and co vocalisters, > >I was a quite bussy in the last days, so I did not >respond immediately. Apart from that, I was a bit >puzzled by the original mail, becasue I had the >feeling Cindy knew exactly how a German 'r' should be >pronunciated, how it is pronunciated in Germany and >how it used to be pronunciated, yet was confronted >with the problem that some teachers and singers in the >U.S. for no apparant reason started to use the Englsh >'r' instead, and wanted to know how teachers and >singers in the U.S. were treating c.q. teaching their >'r''s. > >I think most of us agree on the fact that, unlike in >the English, the German 'r' should be a rolling 'r', >although the amount of rolling varies greatly. It is >basically a softly rolling r, produced by putting your >tongue on the part of your palatum behind your upper >front teeth. >If you (or at least if a German speaker) produce(s) a >very soft rolling 'r', it sounds like a schwa, but is >produced completely diferently. I.m.o this is to >prefer to a flipped 'r', that is, if I understand it >well, produced with the tongue a little bit more >backwards. The softly rolling 'r' does not interfere >in any way with other consonants or vowels. (I >disagree with Cindy though, that consonants (not even >the 'h') are a good way to solve onset or attack >problems.) > >The basic rolling pronunciation of the 'r' is >influenced by many things, of which the most important >ones are the consonants and vowels the 'r' is >surrounded by, emphasising, redundancy and volume. > >If you want to hear a perfect example of how it should >be done i.m.o., you should listen to Fritz >Wunderlich's DGG recording of the beautiful Miller's >daughter, especially in the first song, 'Das Wandern'. > >You will hear that he variies the amount of rolling >greatly, but always exactly in tune with the music and >the feelings to be expressed, and always perfectly >understandible. No rule (like 'when singing piano we >always have the emphasise consonants') Wunderlich >follows rigidly, and that is why it is so perfect. (We >could argue about his interpretation, but he was still >learning how to sing Lieder at that point, his >Salzburg and Edinborough recitals already show where >he was heading to). > >Finally I would like to remember the wise words >Wunderlich borrowed from his teacher 'the words should >melt in your mouth like caviar': I think they say it >all. > >Best greetings, > >Dre
John Blyth Baritono robusto e lirico Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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