Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Robin L. Frye" <R.L.Frye@w...>
"Robin L. Frye" <R.L.Frye@w...>
Date:  Thu Oct 26, 2000  4:06 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Re: Diction: German r's and how to treat/teach them


Cindy,

I was surprised to read about what you called the "standard" pronunciation
of the combination of a flipped final "r" and an initial vowel. I've been
out of school lots and lots of years at this point, and I was taught that
any German word beginning with a vowel starts with a glottal stop, and that
the "r" preceding such a vowel would be pronounced with the schwa ending you
mention. This is also what I hear in performance and on recordings. So the
standard which is said to be on the wane was never taught to me, and what is
supposed to be replacing it is what I was taught way back when. I have
continued to pronounce this combination as I learned it then, and no
teacher, coach or conductor has ever corrected me on that.

As a teacher, I understand the reluctance to encourage young singers to be
sprinkling their singing with liberal amounts of glottal stops. However, I
think this must be taught along with the emphasis that one must develop the
facility that allows one to choose the degree or severity of the glottal; a
very light stroke that does not interfere with line, does not harm vocal
folds, and makes text more easily understandable is quite possible. A
stronger glottal may be used sparingly where text is to be highlighted or
emotion pointed up. But I think that attention to learning how to produce
and adjust these varying degrees of glottal stop early on in my singing
training have meant that I have never had to deal with vocal issues of
improper onset since.

Having used a few different diction texts, I find that no two give identical
phonetic spellings. The sounds that you and I are after here may not be so
far apart, but may look more so on the page. I'm not familiar with the
Siebs book; you state that it deals with "stage diction". I wonder if it is
specifically directed to lyric diction as opposed to spoken diction. In
working with native speaker diction coaches, there is a pronounced (no pun
intended!) difference between those whose expertise is in lyric diction and
those who concentrate on spoken diction.

Robin Lynne Frye
Mezzo-Soprano
Voice and Piano Teacher
New York, New York




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