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From:  John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...>
John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...>
Date:  Wed Oct 25, 2000  9:42 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Re: Diction: German r's and how to treat/teach them


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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