Hello All,
If you've bought the diction book I recommended by David Adams, it’s a good idea to read the chapters in the book as outlined in the syllabus which correspond to what we’re working on. David is overly thorough about things which are sure to be both elucidating and utterly confusing. When I was living with my friend Brad he was rehearsing with his pianist for a recital out west and so there were 3 German diction teachers under one roof and I can tell you that there wasn't a consensus among the three of us and the 4 diction books I have as references so that’s exciting. (Such is the excitement that is my life.) As I tell my diction classes, diction rules are made after the language is established so though there are rules, they don’t fit all occasions. Remember, all languages evolve both in vocabulary and pronunciation. This is where the Youtube videos and listening come in. The idea is to know what the choices are and why you’re making them and, to some extent, to be able to defend them. You’ll find that the diction that you’ve heard from Olaf Bär will be complete anathema to the diction you’ll hear from the older singers like Fischer Dieskau and Elizabeth Schwartzkopf. In fact, I hope you’ve noticed that the [x] sound that Bär uses is different than the [x] sound that Quasthoff uses. But everyone is right. They’re not thinking a vowel is open or closed, they are just pronouncing their language. Consider the English word neither. "You say [niðɘr] and I say [naIðɘr]" and we’re both right. It would be lovely to live in a world of absolute absolutes but the poetry is in the variables and again, that’s where the listening comes in.
With that in mind, I’m sending you three videos of three women singing Brahms’s Vergebliches Ständchen (the title is harder to say than any of the words of the song!) The first is Christa Ludwig. Born in Berlin in 1928, she didn’t retire all that long ago and did several years of a final recital tour. It got to be a bit of a joke. I turned pages for her in a recital 1991 at Tanglewood and I remember it being one of the most astonishing recitals I’ve ever heard. Unlike what you’re about to hear, she very much just delivered the songs with very little theatricality and it worked a treat. She also said one of my favorite things. When asked what she was looking forward to most in retirement, she answered – “I’m looking forward to being able to enjoy a good head cold.”
Next is Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. Born in 1915 in Prussia which is now Poland, Schwarzkopf was sort of the female Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. She sang everything and was a famous Lieder singer. I never got to meet her or hear her live, mostly because she had been a member of the Nazi party and so she wasn’t welcome here really. She was known later in her life as an extraordinarily tough master class teacher and not a very good one. Still, it was a unique voice and she was a mesmerizing performer who, as a younger woman, was extremely glamorous.
If you've bought the diction book I recommended by David Adams, it’s a good idea to read the chapters in the book as outlined in the syllabus which correspond to what we’re working on. David is overly thorough about things which are sure to be both elucidating and utterly confusing. When I was living with my friend Brad he was rehearsing with his pianist for a recital out west and so there were 3 German diction teachers under one roof and I can tell you that there wasn't a consensus among the three of us and the 4 diction books I have as references so that’s exciting. (Such is the excitement that is my life.) As I tell my diction classes, diction rules are made after the language is established so though there are rules, they don’t fit all occasions. Remember, all languages evolve both in vocabulary and pronunciation. This is where the Youtube videos and listening come in. The idea is to know what the choices are and why you’re making them and, to some extent, to be able to defend them. You’ll find that the diction that you’ve heard from Olaf Bär will be complete anathema to the diction you’ll hear from the older singers like Fischer Dieskau and Elizabeth Schwartzkopf. In fact, I hope you’ve noticed that the [x] sound that Bär uses is different than the [x] sound that Quasthoff uses. But everyone is right. They’re not thinking a vowel is open or closed, they are just pronouncing their language. Consider the English word neither. "You say [niðɘr] and I say [naIðɘr]" and we’re both right. It would be lovely to live in a world of absolute absolutes but the poetry is in the variables and again, that’s where the listening comes in.
With that in mind, I’m sending you three videos of three women singing Brahms’s Vergebliches Ständchen (the title is harder to say than any of the words of the song!) The first is Christa Ludwig. Born in Berlin in 1928, she didn’t retire all that long ago and did several years of a final recital tour. It got to be a bit of a joke. I turned pages for her in a recital 1991 at Tanglewood and I remember it being one of the most astonishing recitals I’ve ever heard. Unlike what you’re about to hear, she very much just delivered the songs with very little theatricality and it worked a treat. She also said one of my favorite things. When asked what she was looking forward to most in retirement, she answered – “I’m looking forward to being able to enjoy a good head cold.”
Next is Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. Born in 1915 in Prussia which is now Poland, Schwarzkopf was sort of the female Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. She sang everything and was a famous Lieder singer. I never got to meet her or hear her live, mostly because she had been a member of the Nazi party and so she wasn’t welcome here really. She was known later in her life as an extraordinarily tough master class teacher and not a very good one. Still, it was a unique voice and she was a mesmerizing performer who, as a younger woman, was extremely glamorous.
Lastly is Anneliese Rothenberger. Other than the fact that she was born in Mannheim in Southwest Germany in 1926 I don’t know anything about her. But I think her German is just different enough from the other two to be interesting. Notice particularly her [u] vowels and vowel lengths.
Pay particular attention to the vowels in this song and let me know your thoughts. The text and translation follow the links. As a side note, you should know the name Gerald Moore who is the pianist in the Ludwig and Schwarzkopf videos. It’s fair to say that he single handedly invented the job "singer accompanist."
R
Christa Ludwig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsIHSmpTFQg&feature=related
Elizabeth Schwarzkopf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2tcCxw8Kpw
Anneliese
Rothenberger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAuSB-EqJaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAuSB-EqJaI
Vergebliches Ständchen Score
Vergebliches
Ständchen
Language: German
Er:
Guten Abend, mein Schatz,
guten Abend, mein Kind!
Ich komm' aus Lieb' zu dir,
Ach, mach' mir auf die Tür,
mach' mir auf die Tür!
Sie:
Meine Tür ist verschlossen,
Ich laß dich nicht ein;
Mutter, die rät' mir klug,
Wär'st du herein mit Fug,
Wär's mit mir vorbei!
Er:
So kalt ist die Nacht,
so eisig der Wind,
Daß mir das Herz erfriert,
Mein' Lieb' erlöschen wird;
Öffne mir, mein Kind!
Sie:
Löschet dein' Lieb';
lass' sie löschen nur!
Löschet sie immerzu,
Geh' heim zu Bett, zur Ruh'!
Gute Nacht, mein Knab'!
Futile Serenade
Language: English
He:
Good evening, my treasure,
good evening, sweet girl!
I come from love of you,
Ah, open the door,
open the door for me!
She:
My door is locked,
and I won't let you in:
My mother has advised me well!
If you came in,
It would all be over for me!
He:
The night is so cold,
and the wind so icy
that my heart will freeze,
and my love will be extinguished!
Open for me, sweet girl!
She:
If your love starts dying,
then let it be extinguished!
If it keeps dying,
go home to bed, and rest!
Good night, my boy!
Language: German
Er:
Guten Abend, mein Schatz,
guten Abend, mein Kind!
Ich komm' aus Lieb' zu dir,
Ach, mach' mir auf die Tür,
mach' mir auf die Tür!
Sie:
Meine Tür ist verschlossen,
Ich laß dich nicht ein;
Mutter, die rät' mir klug,
Wär'st du herein mit Fug,
Wär's mit mir vorbei!
Er:
So kalt ist die Nacht,
so eisig der Wind,
Daß mir das Herz erfriert,
Mein' Lieb' erlöschen wird;
Öffne mir, mein Kind!
Sie:
Löschet dein' Lieb';
lass' sie löschen nur!
Löschet sie immerzu,
Geh' heim zu Bett, zur Ruh'!
Gute Nacht, mein Knab'!
Futile Serenade
Language: English
He:
Good evening, my treasure,
good evening, sweet girl!
I come from love of you,
Ah, open the door,
open the door for me!
She:
My door is locked,
and I won't let you in:
My mother has advised me well!
If you came in,
It would all be over for me!
He:
The night is so cold,
and the wind so icy
that my heart will freeze,
and my love will be extinguished!
Open for me, sweet girl!
She:
If your love starts dying,
then let it be extinguished!
If it keeps dying,
go home to bed, and rest!
Good night, my boy!
No comments:
Post a Comment