Ici on parle Deutsch!

In the fall term at Smith I conducted a class in French pronunciation for my students and just this week I did a class in German pronunciation. My friend Heinke Brendler came up from Longmeadow, MA to help with the German class. Heinke wrote the German exercises in Vocalizing from the Ground Up! and did the recording of the phrases for the CD that accompanies that book.

I feel that it is essential that singers be as fluent as possible in the languages they sing, or at least be able to pronounce them absolutely correctly so that a native speaker listening to them can understand every word. The best thing is to be able to speak the languages in which one sings, but this is not always possible.

In speaking English, we all know various shades of meaning for every word we use, whether in singing or in everyday speech. It takes a great deal of time to develop this ability in other languages.

Certain sounds in both French and German are often difficult for English speakers to master. In both languages the vowel found in the French word tu and in the German word früh can cause an English speaker a problem. I suggest that the singer begin by singing the vowel [i] as in 'see'. and then bringing the lips to a gentle pout without changing the position of the tongue. This should produce the correct vowel sound.

In the German word Glück the singer should sing the vowel [I] as in 'it', and come to the gentle pout. It is not necessary to pressure the lips into a tight pout to achieve these sounds.

In dealing with the vowel in words like jeune and löst the singer should begin with the vowel [e] as in the word 'eight' or more correctly été and then bring the lips to an easy pout. In words like heure and Hölle the singer should begin with the vowel [E] as in 'bed' and pout the lips. Again, I find that this is the easiet way to find the correct sound for these vowels.

These sounds must be practiced out of context until the singer can pronounce them without having to think about it every time.

Another problem I find in German is in words like der,den, dem, and des. The first three must be pronounced with the brighter [e] vowel as in été or 'chaos' and des must use the [E] vowel as in 'fed'.

This may seem fussy, but unless we sing every language correctly, we are not doing our homework and will not be understood by the listener. And this, of course, includes our own language! I am often puzzled listing to someone sing and wondering what language they are singing only to find it is English. Madeleine Marshall, you should be living at this hour!

All singers need clarity in sound and in pronunciation. Add emotion and musicianship to this mix and you have an artist!