I would and do ask for that vowel even if we aren't doing G&S, or
whatever. It just sings well to eliminate the "r", and to my American
ear, does not sound at all affected, unless you speak it, not sing
it. If one is doing Sprectstimme (sp?) with English, then I don't
know what approach would be taken.
Dean
On Apr 30, 2007, at 8:08 PM, Mark D Lew wrote:
On Apr 30, 2007, at 1:46 PM, John Howell wrote:
Well, I don't know IPA, but could you describe what you mean by
[3] by analogy with other standard English words. Otherwise I
can't tell what you're suggesting.
Well if you don't know IPA you probably also won't know what it
means if I say "unrounded open-mid central" or "non-rhotic accent".
I gather you've figured out by now that [3] is the vowel sound in
"bird" as it is pronounced by someone with a proper British accent.
(Think Julie Andrews.) It's sort of like a schwa, or the "oo" in
"book", or the "eu" in "chanteuse", but it's not identical to any
of them.
You're a choral director, aren't you, John? Suppose you're
preparing your chorus for something that wants a decidedly British
sound, like Gilbert & Sullivan or Benjamin Britten, and you have a
long held note on "heard" or "world" or "pearl" or "early" or
"virgin". What vowel do you ask for? That's your [3]. It's not
just for singing, it's a standard vowel in the pronunciation of the
King's English, whether spoken or sung. We don't use it in
American pronunciation.
mdl
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Dean M. Estabrook
http://deanestabrook.googlepages.com/home
Of all hoaxes, the one which is my most vexing bête noire on a
quotidian basis, is the cereal box top which informs simply,
"Lift Tab to Open." Then, "To Close, Insert Tab Here ." Yeah,
right! In attempting to accomplish the first direction, not only
the tab but also the slit intended to accept the aforementioned
protuberance have both been irreparably disfigured and rendered
dysfunctional. This debacle is then amplified by the misbehavior
of the recalcitrant inner bag, which can not be unsealed sans
mangling it, and hence, will not disperse its contents without
exiting the box itself. All I wanted was a bowl of cereal.
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