Diction in Context

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 practice drills, quizzes, and assessment forms, and 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

Brenda Smith, DMA teaches studio voice, diction and vocal pedagogy at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She has been widely recognized for her contributions to the concept of lifelong singing through proper voice care. Dr. Smith is a lyric soprano with special interests in the recital and concert repertoire. In addition, Dr. Smith was translator, collaborator, and assistant to Dr. Wilhelm Ehmann and Dr. Frauke Haasemann, the pedagogues whose work in Germany and the United States developed the concept known as "voice building for choirs". Dr. Smith works regularly as consultant, clinician, and conductor with amateur and professional choirs. She has been associated with the choirs of St. Ignatius Loyola, the Central City Chorus, and the Dessoff Choirs in New York City, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, the Cathedral Choral Society of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., as well as the choirs of the Epiphany Cathedral in Venice, Florida. As an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association, Dr. Smith speaks as a resource for solo singers, voice teachers, and choral conductors. Dr. Smith has collaborated with Dr. Robert Thayer Sataloff, implementing projects to promote vocal health through the choral experience and has presented her work regularly at the International Symposium on the Care of the Professional Voice, sponsored by the Voice Foundation. In June 2000, Dr. Smith was honored by the Voice Foundation and the National Association of Teachers of Singing as the recipient of the Van Lawrence Award in recognition of her demonstrated excellence in teaching of singing and her active interest in voice science and vocal pedagogy. As the Van Lawrence winner, she traveled to the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden during May 2001 to pursue topics in the acoustics of the voice with Dr. Johan Sundberg. With Dr. Sataloff, Dr. Smith is the author of Choral Pedagogy, now in its 2nd edition, (Plural Publishing, 2006). She is the translator of Voice Building for Choirs by Wilhelm Ehmann and Frauke Haasemann (Chapel Hill, NC: Hinshaw Music, Inc.; 1980). Dr. Smith is the author of Cantare et Sonare: A Handbook of Choral Performance Practice (Hinshaw Music, Inc, 2006) as well as numerous articles on issues of vocal/choral music pedagogy and performance. Dr. Smith serves as Consulting Editor on Singing Voice for Plural Publishing. In recent years, Dr. Smith has been active in singing voice research related to the aging process. Currently, she is involved with projects associated with the Center for Arts in Healthcare at the University of Florida. With Professor Ronald Burrichter, she directs a program called "Sing for Life", offering singing voice strategies to Parkinson's patients and their caregivers. She and Professor Burrichter are consultants to the Oak Hammock Singers, a choral organization at a continuing care retirement community in Gainesville. She has taught at Westminster Choir College, Dickinson College, Rowan University of New Jersey, and State College of Florida in Bradenton, Florida. As Coordinator of Musical Activities at the German School of Middlebury College in Vermont, Dr. Smith founded and directed the "German for Singers" program, a curriculum combining culture and language study with vocal performance. Dr. Smith holds degrees in vocal performance and pedagogy from the University of Evansville, Westminster Choir College, and the University of Maryland with further study at the Hochschule fur Kirchenmusik der Evangelischen Kirche-Herford and the Hochschule fur Musik und darstellemde Kunst/Hamburg in Germany.