Satyrs
That's the word, now how do you say it? And what about the person sitting next to you, or next to them?
If you've read my earlier blogs then you know that one of the areas that fascinates me relates to the tiny little subtleties of performances that can make the difference between competent and fantastic. We've talked about stolen time and enunciation of consonants in the past. And in BMT we are frequently asked to remember how to sing a triplet. But my interest this time was sparked by this single word.
In our Autumn concert this year one of the songs that we are singing is Masquerade from Phantom of the Opera. It's a great song with amazing lyrics, although sadly I feel that few people will be able to pick up on all of them - I've listened to the live track loads of times now and it's one of those that you have to play again and again to try and hear what is being sung. Anyway, as were singing through one of the pages, we came as a group across this word ' Satyrs' and I heard four different pronunciations of the word in the area around me. It's not that surprising really as it's the not the sort of word that most of us use in our daily conversations and it's lacking in vowels that tend to keep us on the straight and narrow.
With so many versions just around me, I worked on the theory that many others were not certain of how to say it, so stuck my hand up and asked our Musical Director, Terry Bailey. It turned out that Terry wasn't that sure either. I hadn't expected it to generate quite the level of discussion on correct speaking that it did: I simply wanted Terry to pronounce it for us and then we would all follow. And I certainly wouldn't argue with a pronunciation verdict given by the MD!
A week later Terry came back and had investigated it for us - he has now told us that we will pronounce it Say Ters, which seems ok to me. You'll have to listen out for it when you come to our concert this September and see if it sounds good, consistently good, to you too.
So why blog about this? Well sometimes wanting to get the little things like this right can be disruptive and it can seem like it's causing trouble just for the sake of it. That's not the case. I want to do a great job in the company. And I think that most others want the same. When you're working through a song you can work out many parts for yourself. We have a shared understanding of how many words are to be pronounced and we know what PP, P, F and FF stand for (we do seem to differ on understanding MP and MF still!). So the parts where we benefit from guidance and instruction from our MD are going to be the little things like this, enunciation, pronunciation and no doubt other things in the future.
For me, when I don't understand something, or think that I or others are getting something wrong, I will keep trying to learn and to find things out. I will also bring a pencil with me so that I can make notes and try to keep getting it right...
That's the word, now how do you say it? And what about the person sitting next to you, or next to them?
If you've read my earlier blogs then you know that one of the areas that fascinates me relates to the tiny little subtleties of performances that can make the difference between competent and fantastic. We've talked about stolen time and enunciation of consonants in the past. And in BMT we are frequently asked to remember how to sing a triplet. But my interest this time was sparked by this single word.
In our Autumn concert this year one of the songs that we are singing is Masquerade from Phantom of the Opera. It's a great song with amazing lyrics, although sadly I feel that few people will be able to pick up on all of them - I've listened to the live track loads of times now and it's one of those that you have to play again and again to try and hear what is being sung. Anyway, as were singing through one of the pages, we came as a group across this word ' Satyrs' and I heard four different pronunciations of the word in the area around me. It's not that surprising really as it's the not the sort of word that most of us use in our daily conversations and it's lacking in vowels that tend to keep us on the straight and narrow.
With so many versions just around me, I worked on the theory that many others were not certain of how to say it, so stuck my hand up and asked our Musical Director, Terry Bailey. It turned out that Terry wasn't that sure either. I hadn't expected it to generate quite the level of discussion on correct speaking that it did: I simply wanted Terry to pronounce it for us and then we would all follow. And I certainly wouldn't argue with a pronunciation verdict given by the MD!
A week later Terry came back and had investigated it for us - he has now told us that we will pronounce it Say Ters, which seems ok to me. You'll have to listen out for it when you come to our concert this September and see if it sounds good, consistently good, to you too.
So why blog about this? Well sometimes wanting to get the little things like this right can be disruptive and it can seem like it's causing trouble just for the sake of it. That's not the case. I want to do a great job in the company. And I think that most others want the same. When you're working through a song you can work out many parts for yourself. We have a shared understanding of how many words are to be pronounced and we know what PP, P, F and FF stand for (we do seem to differ on understanding MP and MF still!). So the parts where we benefit from guidance and instruction from our MD are going to be the little things like this, enunciation, pronunciation and no doubt other things in the future.
For me, when I don't understand something, or think that I or others are getting something wrong, I will keep trying to learn and to find things out. I will also bring a pencil with me so that I can make notes and try to keep getting it right...
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