American English

[teamsaint]

hummm ?
Really ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=572kJDIED9g

(they are very popular )

That all went out of fashion in about 1976.
Except for Americans, scousers and some rubbish acts.

Here's a singer using a proper London accent !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmopROxBnBU

Gongers, you might find this video useful if you happen to be doing any singing lessons for your students !!(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQLimCioEIA

[Gabriel Jackson]

Theoretically, I think the singer(s) should use the accent the composer used to set the words, but that is a lot easier said than done. That's much more important, I'd have thought, than the accent of the writer. What accent did RVW hear in his head when he composed the Sea Symphony? Do we know?

I entirely agree that the accent of an author is irrelevant once their words are set, those words no longer being in their voice, but part of a piece of music.

We don't know what accent RVW heard as he was writing the Sea Symphony, as you say - composers don't hear music in their heads in quite the same way people might think they do - but even if we did, do we want to mimic that? Britten's speaking voice now seems rather over-posh and affected to modern ears. I don't think anyone would want to try and sing Britten's music with such pronunciation!

[fsharpminor]

I think that's a slightly different question, and one that brings up a fact I've often pondered; why do we have such an emphasis on period instruments and 'authentic' perormance, but no attempt, as far as I know, at 'period singing'. Will it come?

[Gabriel Jackson]

I think that's a slightly different question, and one that brings up a fact I've often pondered; why do we have such an emphasis on period instruments and 'authentic' perormance, but no attempt, as far as I know, at 'period singing'. Will it come?

There certainly are attempts at period pronunciation, from a number of groups.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I think that's a slightly different question, and one that brings up a fact I've often pondered; why do we have such an emphasis on period instruments and 'authentic' perormance, but no attempt, as far as I know, at 'period singing'.

I does happen. I was a member of the Chapter House Choir, York in 1990, when the conductor, Andrew Padmore, devoted an entire rehearsal to a session with a Rennaissance English/Latin expert, who schooled us in Latin pronunciation in Byrd's time. It was difficult to adapt, but quite fascinating.

[Mary Chambers]

I entirely agree that the accent of an author is irrelevant once their words are set, those words no longer being in their voice, but part of a piece of music.

We don't know what accent RVW heard as he was writing the Sea Symphony, as you say - composers don't hear music in their heads in quite the same way people might think they do - but even if we did, do we want to mimic that? Britten's speaking voice now seems rather over-posh and affected to modern ears. I don't think anyone would want to try and sing Britten's music with such pronunciation!

I imagine composers vary in what they 'hear' (or not) as they compose. I agree that Britten's pronunciation would sound too 'posh' now - Pears's too, though he did modify it a little over the years when singing. That's why I said I felt using the accent of the composer was only theoretically desirable - even when we know what it was.

[fsharpminor]

I wasn't meaning authrntic pronunciation - I've been there, done that, including Latin as in Tudor England, Germany, Austria, Spain and even Mexico! I mean styles of singing - tone production, vowels, portamenti.

[Gabriel Jackson]

I wasn't meaning authrntic pronunciation - I've been there, done that, including Latin as in Tudor England, Germany, Austria, Spain and even Mexico! I mean styles of singing - tone production, vowels, portamenti.

Presumably that's what Jantina Noorman of Musica Reservata thought she was doing (likewise Ensemble Organum in a different way more recently). There's much less information extant about these things when it comes to voices, isn't there, and old instruments do survive - from which much can be gleaned - and old bodies, and this voices, don't!