Re: Singing in foreign langs. was Re: Greetings

On Sun, 12 Jan 2003 11:17:44 -0500 Sally Caves <scaves@...>
writes:
> As for distortion, it always seemed to me that singers of songs in
> Spanish
> were far more willing to put the emphasis on the "wrong" syllable
> than
> singers of English songs, or to end measures in the middle of a
> word.  (I'm
> going on memory here of a CD I can't remember the name of or the
> name of the
> singer!  La Llorna?).  Singing in English (at least most
> contemporary
> English songs) seems to require that the words fall into place
> within
> measures, and that their emphasis match that of the tune.  Like you,
> I had a
> hard time following songs in Spanish.  And for all I can tell,
> Bittova is
> willing to start new measures in the middle of her words.  When I
> try to put
> Teonaht into verse, especially rhyming verse, I still labor under
> the
> anglophonic assumption that the words cannot be distorted, emphasis
> cannot
> be changed, verbal phrases have to match measures; and therefore
> it's
> incredibly hard to versify Teonaht.  I'm trying to shake free of
> that.
> Sally Caves
-

I'm having problems with that now as i try to solidify the tune for my
Rokbeigalmki poem/song |numyenaurkim uhmzu-elyeb| "Numenoreans Came".
The last word of the second line, |sfãs|, is supposed to be pronounced
[sfa::s] with an extralong /a/.  Now the tune that's been floating around
in my head and taking over the text has been letting me extend the /a/
along a downdrift of notes, but then when i try to repeat the line
there's never any more room left, so |sfãs| "become selfish" ends up
sounding like its minimal pair |sfas| "individuality".  Maybe i just to
beat the tune into submission and show it who's boss ;-) .


-Stephen (Steg)
 " quickbeam on the scene / all the elf girls scream..."
     ~ lords of the rhymes