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From:  "Cynthia Donnell" <csdonnell@m...>
"Cynthia Donnell" <csdonnell@m...>
Date:  Thu Oct 26, 2000  1:39 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Re: Diction: German r's and how to treat/teach them


Dear Dre and all,

I'm an experienced diction teacher and I sing German extremely well. German
speakers are puzzled that I speak the language so poorly because I sing it
so well. So you're right -- I know how to say the r's. I know how to teach
them *IF* all I teach is the flipped or rolled r. However, change is in the
wind.

Newer diction texts now indicate that as a rule, not an exception, the final
r in certain words should NOT be flipped but said as a schwa or as that
symbol that looks like /a/ but upsidedown.
This means singing "der eine" as /de@ aen@/ rather than
/der aen@/.

Most voice teachers in college and university voice programs still follow
the rule of flipping or rolling/trilling all r's. I want my diction
students to be current as many of them go on to big graduate programs. Thus
my question regarding how other teachers teach the r's in German diction.

I want to know if you bother with the newer way or simply stick with the
flipped/single tap r and the rolled/trilled r as the standard.

One of the problems I find with the use of the /@/ in place of the final r
as in the 'der eine' example) is that singers tend to start the following
vowel with a glottal onset. In fact at least one of the diction texts
insists that initial vowels in these cases *must* be started with a light
glottal.

My diction course is a freshman class. I'm not sure it's worth it to get
into the level of detail required to examine the ins and outs of when we
flip the r and when we use the schwa in place of an r. But I do want the
students exposed to the changing nature of the performance practice.

There is a standard of German stage diction, It's the bible as far as I'm
concerned. The Siebs _Hochbuehnen_Aussprache_ is as good as it gets.
Because of Siebs, regional pronuncuations are not an issue. But to my
knowledge it hasn't been revised to cover the current change which many are
embracing.
Cindy Donnell

>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. SNIP
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.)
SNIP

Best greetings,
Dre>



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