Diction in Context: A Textbook for Singing in English, Italian, German, and French

by Brenda Smith (Author, Contributor)

Diction in Context is a unique and highly practical textbook for singers learning to sing in English, Italian, German, and French. Each chapter is designed for use in diction courses in academic music and voice programs, helping students learn through pronunciation, articulation, enunciation, punctuation, and cultural context in each language.

Students and teachers of singing will benefit from the text’s pertinent biographical, historical and literary sources along with diction rules and textual examples of English, Italian, German and French song. For each language, there is a section on sentence structure and syntax intended to assist readers with poetic analysis and word-by-word translations. Representative song texts are provided for the purpose of comparative listening and phonetic transcription. Comparative listening reveals subtle differences in expression and diction. In addition, the texts are presented in a workbook format, allowing space for IPA dictation practice.

Diction in Context provides singers with the tools needed to delve deeply into the poetry and music they sing, to pronounce text accurately and to feel confident in expressing it. By combining English, Italian, German, and French into one easy-to-use textbook, students will benefit from a comparative perspective of singing in each language.

Key Features:
Repertoire lists are provided for each language and are designed to be used for class presentations and assessments
Discussion questions to challenge reader comprehension of key concepts and songs
Word-by-word translations to accompany foreign language texts
An end-of-book glossary featuring definitions of terms in the text as well as terminology encountered in related literature
Three practical appendices, including:
o Practice drills, quizzes, and assessment forms

o A list of additional resources for diction learning

o An Index of Works Cited featuring all poems and songs referenced in the book in one easily accessible list

Access to a PluralPlus companion website with PowerPoint lecture slides, lesson plans, exercises, electronic versions of the appendices and supplementary resources