Episode 58

We're sticking with English Diction and Jason Nedecky this week, discussing the text to "Music for a While". Our focus is on how to handle R's ([ʀ], [r], [ɾ] and the burred R [ɹ]), a little bit about glottals, a review of some of the topics from last week and voiced consonants at the ends of words. I also gave some tips on studying foreign languages, which I'll add to the 7 Steps to Learn Music page. Henry Purcell's "Music for a While" was written as incidental music to John Dryden and Nathaniel Lee's tragic play Oedipus. There are several different realizations of the continuo, including one by Benjamin Britten. Britten realized many of Purcell's songs, which have been recorded on Hyperion. Jason also included a worksheet on R's that is available in this post. He also introduces the concept of rhoticity on this episode! In the meantime, please free feel to contact me here, on the Facebook page, on Twitter @dictionpolice or directly at ellen@ellenrissinger.com with any comments, questions or suggestions! NB--Just to be sure, in reading the text be careful that the word "wond'ring" doesn't come out sounding like "wand'ring". The first syllable of this word should be phoneticized [wʌn-], NOT [wɒn-].