The Scranton chronicle. (Scranton, Miss.) 1897-19??, 1900-11-10
ENGLISH A MUSICAL TONGUE.
yocnIl.m Necessary to Produce ths
True values of Words-The
singing Quality.

Nine. Florenza dArona, contribut-
Ing 10 the Musical Courier a series Of
articles on English as q musical
language. gives an Instructive list of
some of the faults of pronunciation
she has found in her American pupils;
The words earth" dirt" third. !"
smirth." etc. are twisted 10 ear-eeth.
dir-eat, thir-ede, mur-eeth. etc. In Il
Know That My Redeemer Iiyeth," you
hear land though 'wur-emes,' ETC.
which may perhaps be more realistic,
| for | never heard the word sung that
way that / don't feel the creatures
wriggling In and out of my body, but
1t is realism /, as well as others,
would prefer TO dispense with, that we
may not be deprived of the beauty of
the sentiment. The word "shall' is
frequently pronounced she-al in sing
Ing, the word might" nigh-eat, DWELL
ing upon the 'eat," instead of upon the
".' and to be finished with tongue
tip st" at the end OF the sound. Tho
letter "" used between the letter IT"
and "e," as with our years." instead
of with our ears" etc; the letter %"
pronounced cor" as "corfee," instead
of coffee" Ga great Chicago fanlD;
the leaving off of "g," as at the end OF
singing" bringing" feeling etc;
pnonouncing strength "strenth," Feb
ruary "Febuary;" the omission of the
aspirated III" (Which is one of the
greatest drawbacks TO tone freedom),
and the substitution Of ~" as "be-
yold" for behold (often and often
heard In oratorio in the United States);
the dropping of the final IT'S" and in
distinct commencing eonsonants. Tho
substitution of sc" for - Is a most
common fault, such as "selk, "melk,"
ETC., instead of silk, milk, etc. The
trilling of the epiglottis or uyula for
an "r," leaving off the roll of the "r,"
In such words as care, rare, bare, fair,
etc., and rolling the "r" in Lord, which
Is grave fault, as Is also commencing
all as" with n precedent sound of "nl,'
as "ul-Lord," or 'pur-ray" for pray"
The chief vowels are n, e, /, o, Il. The
"a" has four sounds, "a" in hay, "a" in
mast, "a" in rather (ah). and "a" in
saw. "E" has two sounds, "e" in bee,
and "e" in fed. 81" has two sounds, as
in sigh and kid. 20" has two soun is,
go (oo) lin America), but should only
have one sound in 60 and one in "hod"
"U," four sounds, as in cute, bud, mule
and full. Diphthongs almost always
pronounce their full sound at the very
end of a word. The singing quality
joining two vowels together should
partake a little OF the sound of each,
and be so delicate that the word dies
away even, with a clean pronunciation
of the lpst consonant.
The attack of consonants In speech
and song need the hammering of the
tip of the tongue at the hard palate,
and not the movement OF all the chest,
throat and tongue muscles. Let the
body keep still, and watch the power
of the tip of the tongue attack, as in
the word lah, lay, lee, low, loo; no "ul''
before the words, remember, but a
clean, crisp attache of the al" See
that the vowels do not recede back
into the mouth but cling to the first
consonant; and that word is like
the shot out OF gun, and not, like
power, distributed all over. Don't lin
ger over the consonant in singing, but
dwell upon the vowel only. The words
"butter," lips" stomach" etc, pro-
nounced "but" front of lips, and ter"
In the throat; slips" pronounced
"lieps' Clips and throat, fault | la
bored long time with pupil to con-
uuer1. and "sfomach." pronounced
"stumick"