Diction for Singers: A Concise Reference for English, Italian, Latin, German, French and Spanish Pronunciation [Paperback]

Joan Wall (Author), Robert Caldwell (Author), Tracy Gavilanes (Author), Sheila Allen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1877761516 | ISBN-13: 978-1877761515 | Publication Date: June 1, 1990

Diction for Singers guides singers to the pronunciation of English, Italian, Latin, German, French, and Spanish. The easy navigation leads the reader from the orthographic spelling to the sound, so she can see the general rules for spellings. Each language section includes quick reference tables showing all vowels and consonants with their common letter groups, and special pronunciations.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joan Wall is a voice professor at Texas Woman's University, where she has taught diction courses for more than twenty years. She was a member of National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), presenting seminars and workshops, and has had a celebrated international performing career, singing as a principal with the Metropolitan Opera, the Deutche Opera Berlin, and in concerts, operas, and recitals throughout the United States.

She has sung under the direction of such conductors as Erich Leinsdorf, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Boris Goldovsky, Alfred Wallenstein, Jean Morel, Fausto Cleva, Anshel Brusilow, and Paul Hindemith.

Wall is the author of International Phonetic Alphabet for Singers and coauthor of Diction for Singers, The Singer's Voice video series, Sing! Text and songs for voice class, and Excellence in Singing.

Robert Caldwell is president and CEO of Caldwell Publishing Company, which he founded in 1999. The company's mission is to make difficult ideas easier to teach and understand, particularly ideas in human anatomy and physiology.

Caldwell Publishing Company is now the parent company of PST...Inc., which he founded in 1987 to produce books for professional musicians.

He has authored and coauthored several best-selling books, including The Performer Prepares, Diction for Singers, the Singers' Edition Series, and his latest, the five-volume Excellence in Singing.

He has written, produced, directed, and animated several successful films, including the Human Voice series and Human Hearing series. These books and films are staples in colleges and universities throughout the United States and abroad, including the Juilliard School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and Indiana University.

An accomplished pianist and singer, having earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in music, he also lectures and conducts master classes. A native of southern Louisiana, he now resides in Redmond, Washington with his daughter, Katelyn.

Product Details

• Paperback: 279 pages
• Publisher: Pst (June 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1877761516
• ISBN-13: 978-1877761515
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Diction for Singers, November 15, 2003

By 

Eileen Davis (Columbus, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diction for Singers: A Concise Reference for English, Italian, Latin, German, French and Spanish Pronunciation (Paperback)

With all due respect, well, yes, this book is of GENERAL use-there is a certain convenience in having all these languages in one book. And it maybe a way to begin this type of study. But, alas, there are so many aspects about diction not even addressed. Mistakes abound, and whereas those can be corrected, what about the information that is simply not included? The singer using this book will indeed gain a smattering of diction in all languages, but for adequate preparation for a classical singing career, singers should further their education with more specific textbooks on the languages in question. For instance Evelina Colorni's Italian book, Nico Castel's Spanish offerings, Glenn Paton's Gateway to German Diction, Thomas Grubb's Singing in French or Eileen Davis' new book Sing French. Shortcuts are exactly that, SHORTCUTS! If you are a serious singer, shortcuts just don't work. Get with it-study the details in order to be really competitive in your art. Would you shortcut your vocal technique? Of course not! Nor should you shortcut any part of your training. If you are a diction teacher of students targeting a performance career, please consider the future of your students and the foundation you are providing them.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent necessity, October 13, 2001

By 

Spencer Lent "Spence" (Green Bay, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diction for Singers: A Concise Reference for English, Italian, Latin, German, French and Spanish Pronunciation (Paperback)

This book is a must-have if you are to sing successfully. It is pretty easy to understand, and it introduces IPA without confusing everyone. There are a few mistakes in it but almost every book has mistakes in it. Excellent and easy to understand. Get it if you are a singer!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars So full of mistakes it's more trouble than it's worth.., October 18, 2009

By 

Stephen Jackson "Classical vocalist and Voice... (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diction for Singers: A Concise Reference for English, Italian, Latin, German, Fr (Paperback)

As much as I would like to recommend what SHOULD be quite a good diction book, I really cannot. While it manages to deal with 6 languages in a fairly clear and easy to reference manner, it simply fails to be consistent or accurate in the examples and organization. I know it is a very popular book for college diction course, but even brilliant lecturers are often throw off their game by printing errors or poor examples. I have yet to find a truly satisfactory book that deals with multiple languages cleanly enough to recommend, but "Diction - Italian, Latin, French, German...the Sounds and 81 Exercises for Singing Them"
by John Moriarty is a fairly good jumping off place. I prefer "Singing in French: A Manual of French Diction and French Vocal Repertoire" by Thomas Grubb for French as it really needs it's own book to provide enough information. I applaud Ms. Wall for her other publications and truly believe her to be quite a good pedagogue and technician, but this book really deserves a MAJOR re-write and update before any reprinting should be allowed. At least it's not terribly expensive!