French Lyric Diction

Singers, teachers, coaches, and conductors will appreciate French Lyric Diction: A Singer's Guide for its thorough account of the language as it is sung in opera and mélodie. Often-overlooked topics are explored, including phrasal and emphatic stress, vocalic length, singing the French r, and traditions in the setting of French poetry. Considerable attention is paid to the subject of liaison, with recommendations on how to make decisions about optional liaisons in singing. A comprehensive guide to orthography provides instruction on the pronunciation of all French spellings, including many optional secondary pronunciations, and accepted francisé pronunciation for loanwords. Pronunciation dictionaries give transcriptions for over 10,000 names of composers, poets, artists, roles, performers, characters, and places, as well as everyday musical terms.

Singing well in the French language customarily creates more concerns and problems than any other language encountered in a professional singer's life. There is no greater compliment to a French National than that we show our love and appreciation of this vast fund of music and our willingness to devote the time and understanding that Jason Nedecky shows for his subject. Highly recommended.

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