<< message forwarded by listowner, David Wilson-Okamura >> Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 20:16:36 +0100 From: Robert Dyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Thank you for the reference to Professor Stroh's reading (with the Iliad at the same site). I am listening to it as I type. It has made me conscious that I would advise you to read the Aeneid aloud in the way that is close to your heart, rather than adopting my way or Stroh's. The Stroh reading follows the principle I follow that both word stress and rhythm must receive their values, lrading to a pattern of coincidence in "fluent" lines and conflict ih "difficult" lines. I am still trying to digest what difference is made to my reading the Swiss-French theories. I have the following criticisms of Stroh. It is absolute foreign to me as I do not accept his "r"s as anything but German. His long "a"s also give me an effect of a non-familiar language.On the other hand many of his lines I would read in exactly the same fashion. I am sure he would have a similar comment on mine or my wife's traditional French pronunciation. That suggests that each of us should stick to the way we love reading it. Stroh is never quiet. Vergil's lines, particular at the beginning of Book IV, seem to me quiet and reflective. He betrays that he does not subscribe absolutely to the theory of coincidence and conflict when he misses contrasts that seem to me important. In my judgment he missed lines 65-67 completely. He missed the crucial upbeat of the word iuvant. The stress (pace Emmanuel Plantade) is on the first syllable. In my reading, each of the first 9 syllables in line 65 (ignoring elided -um) has a stress of one or other sort. It goes very slowly until the coinciding vota furentem. Then again three stressed syllables, followed by a short and a striking gulp, sigh, cry of despair (however one may romanticize the effect) on iu-. When Stroh reads the word as iuvant (a word perhaps incomprehensible in spoken Latin), he has lost, in my opinion, the meaning and power of the line. The slow syllables following are dominated by their assonance of vowels and liquids. Line 67 is among my favorite lines of Vergil with its sudden change to alliteration of "t"s, and two more stressed syllables that leap out against the beat of the dactylic rhythm: tacitum... vivit. Now I have turned back the reading to Dido's famous speech at 305ff. Again I feel uncomfortable with foreign "i"s and "r"s, but his use of coincidence is, this time, identical with mine. In particular he hits most of the important conflicts exactly as I do. I do object to his dubious attempt to project as actor an enraged Carthaginian queen, but I probably sound little better myself! I hope others agree with me that the discussions in the last month have been extraordinarily interesting and informative. Thank you for this list, David. Rob Dyer ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
