The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-07-30
WHICH LANGUAGE SHALL WE
USE IN SINGING?
w. H. DANIEL.

OIICC uHOIl a UIIIlC --llO, | I
alarmed: am not going to tell fairy
story-I had occasion to criticise
pupil with regard to her phrasing of a
certain song. She took her breath
after an unimpOrtant word, an article,
adjective, or proposition, l forget
which. She claimed that the music
was phrased in that manner, and that
the words were of less consequence
than the music. / told her that she
must learn to regard song as poem,
whose meaning was to be further
brought out by a musical setting: or,
in other words, the music should be
regarded as subordinate to the words. |
| could not make her view the matter |
as / wished, and possibly may find
some skeptics among you who read
this; but "let us argue the point" as
Midshipman Easy would say.
And, to begin properly, what do we
mean by the term "phrGsing| We
do not care to emulate the scientists.
who use the longest and most difficult
words they can find, and, when they
run short, coin words of sufficient
length to bewilder the common mind.
Let us understand ourselves as we
go along. Lord Timothy Dexter once
wrote book without single punctu-
alton mark IN the body of it; butt at
the end he placed a large quantity OF
commas, semi-colons. periods, and so
on, that his readers might "peppeT and
salt to suit Themselves" He would not
take the responsibility of dividing his
book into proper phrases, but left each
reader to phrase for himself. When
we read sentence, we use punctua
tion-marks to so divide the words that
the proper meaning may be presented.
The shifting of a comma may produce
rather ludicrous effect. To Illus
trate: In the acting version of Rich.
ard III, a messenger suddenly enters
with the words, "My Lord, the Duke
of Buckingham is takenw Whereupon
d Richard responds, Off with his head
k so much for Buckingham On one
Il occasion, an actor chose to burlesque
II the play, without departing from the
T. text. He therefore, in this passage
e shifted the exclamation point from
a "heQd," and placed it after mach,
r with what effect may be readily imag
O ined. have known similar effects tC
u be produced in singing, when the
II breath was taken in the wrong place
J. So think you will understand what ]
n mean by phrGsi1lg, and will see the
J. bearing on the subject in hand.
F. Now a musical idea is written il
q very much the same manner that {
q spoken idea would be. Rests ani
% other signs are made use of, whereby
y the intention of the composer may bt
= shown. But, when words and music
n are united, it is plain that great care
o must be exercised to avoid collision
,e If difference exists, the words SHOULD
" be regarded first of all, otherwise W,
n make singing no more than flute
It playing.
"a Now when Beethoven wrote thu
n adelaide, he wrote it to the words a!
/ expressed in German. When Schuber
r. wrote the ETl-Ki1lg, it was also to thu
n words as expressed in German. Whe1
70 Meyerbeer wrote Robert, TOT que Jaime
1t was to the words as expressed il
l. French. In its proper language, eacI
K song is powerful. Each note finds thu
ar proper word, and each word finds thu
70 proper note. They are truly welded
n But if you wish for something ludi
IS crous, listen to a rendering of the las
', named song in English. 1t is almost
e. as bad as the English version of Il
d 1TO0at0re, which, in my opinion, sur
e passes everything else in absurdity
II But why should this be so? Why
should not a translation prove salts
g. factory? Well, first of all, because
/ languages differ so greatly in charac
If ter. What seems eminently proper
" when expressed in Italian becomes
Is utter nonsense when expressed in En-
N glish, which is what might be termed
u business language" even as JhE
:. Anglo-Saxon race is practical rather
" than poetical. The Frenchman (ant
s. the Italian also) INDUCES in what thu
n practical American would term g,tsh
and it is really not SO bad when he ad
IN heres to his own language; but, re
Is duced to plain, everyday English, it il
It hardly endurable. Many of the Ger
N man, Italian, and French songs arr
o. mere gttSh, which will not bear trans
latiOn.
But there is another reason which
Is 6ftu UCbICl tll6llI bIl1Os IL ID POOOi
i'd BILE to so translate song as to retain
the proper "phrasifag." Ask any in
telligent singer who uses the words ii
the original, how translation sounds
to his ear, and notice that in nearly
every instance he will assure you that
they are to his ear simply fiat"
but the English language is SC
lmuch superior for Sinpingr Well
that is matter of taste. once asked
an intelligent Chinaman in San Fran
cisco if he did not regard our music
superior to his own. Mind you, he
was high-caste, and could read and
write the English language like a ma
tive; but he looked on me with an air
of profound pity, as he assured me
that there was no comparison. Some
day he hoped that we might reach
their state of enlightenment, but at
present we were far short of it, and