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CONCEPTS OF DICTION |
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Speaking as a device. Webster defines speech as the faculty of expressing thoughts by means of words or articulated sounds. Speech and song are distinguishable chiefly by their respective acoustical and aesthetic effects rather than by differences in intellectual or thought content. That is to say, "song is a type of oral utterance with musical modulations of the voice" representing a stylized melodic version of oral speech communication. In song there is usually strict adherence to a rhythmic musical pattern, with prescribed values of pitch, dynamics and duration for each syllable or word expressed. Also, singing employs wider variations in pitch (range), intensity and duration and is usually more dramatic, poetical and affective in character than speech (W). It is the music that makes singing different than speech. [Lawrence 335, p. 3] Singing requires "definite, separated steps of pitch, while [speech] involves a continuity of pitch.** [Mursell and Glenn 413, p. 279] Singing requires at least fifty per cent more vocal energy than normal speech. [Taylor 602, p. 9] Every syllable in the song must be given a definite time value. Slurs and omissions are permitted only in speech, not in singing. [Judd 309, p. 17] Singing, because of its sustained character, requires more breath than speaking. [Conklin 121, p. 30] "In song, pitches are more constant, vowels have more value than consonants, sostenuto is more frequent, agility is easier [e.g., trills], and the intervals are definite." [De Bruyn 131] In singing, vowels are more sustained, there is more vocal vibrato, intensity is greater, range is wider and articulation is more distinct, than in speech. [Stanley 578, p. 441]
In the opinion of 28 authors, there are certain marked differences between singing and speaking; but there are also certain similarities between these two forms of oral expression that can be pedagogicaHy helpful to the singing teacher. For instance, the basic vowel and consonant values of singing find their counterparts in the speech patterns of everyday discourse. Furthermore singing and speaking are both forms of communication that express ideas or thoughts by means of verbal utterance. The singer's diction may, to a certain extent, be influenced and even conditioned by his daily speaking habits. Therefore it is considered necessary to caution the singing student against bad speaking practices which might affect his singing voice. The student must also be taught how to extract the communicative or expressional values of a song by first speaking the text and giving full attention to the meaning of the words.
The New York Singing Teachers Association has promulgated the principle that good diction for singing can be attained "through such automatic use of the speech mechanism as shall eliminate vocal inter- |
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