Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: How do you pronounce


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Posted by Klaus on June 24, 2002 at 01:38:50:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: How do you pronounce posted by ken k on June 23, 2002 at 21:44:09:

My telling of the background for some Jewish names just was one of my usual expansions of themes. I like to see things in contexts.

The US "ee" pronunciation (I do not now of the UK equivalent) of the German "ei" is a US thing without any religious connotations. The "ei" sequence is extremely common in German. In itself as "Ei" it means egg.

There actually are musical, even brass, implications in the pronunciation theme.

Arban suggests vowels to be imagined in various attacks. But he did so in a French context. His "u" had been a "y" had Arban been a Dane. And my ears do no come up with an exact English equivalent for this sound.

In my own playing, and formerly my teaching, I am/was very conscious of imagined vowels to optimise sound in any range. In that respect the elsewise very lazy Danish way of pronunciation works perfectly. Some foreigners, that have seen my quite wideranged warm-up procedures, find them scary.

For me they come natural with the vocalist/recorder-player background, that I have been taught into (the teaching did not make me a singer). Of course the embouchure is important, but one can take a lot of strain off the lips by adjustments to the airpath leading up to them.

Vocal composers most often have been very aware of the specific texts they put into music. Neither Puccini in Danish nor Wagner in Italian are optimal (Callas did some of the latter). My "Messiah" score has English and German texts. Despite the historic background of Händel, I find the German text odd. "Die Posaune erschallt" for "The trumpet shall sound" just being a tiny sample.

Carl Nielsen wrote two operas. The religious "Saul og David" and the light-hearted "Maskerade". They never got the widespread international recognition that his symphonies have. That is a matter of text problems.

To make the circle full: My favourite version of Carl Nielsen's 3rd, the "Espansiva", is the one Leonard Bernstein did in 1965 with our Royal Chapel.
Despite the fact, that the horns are barely acceptable. And despite the very bright bass trombone. Played on a medium-small bore Bach 34 (a now discontinued model) by my teacher Svend Rasmussen.

Klaus


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