Anderson & Presley

By the way, there is one big thing that makes her singing old fashioned in this recording (to my ears). What is it?

Though some of Marian's diphthongs in words seemed very deliberate some of her diphthongs were somewhat elongated in the word "sometimes". It sounded somewhat like, "Someti-eems" Every time she uttered this word, the contrast in diction from the word "sometimes" and her iteration were quite astounding. The only things that I really detected was this word and extremely dark vowels. 

In what ways is he doing the same things as Marian Anderson?

Well, Elvis Presly definitely doesn't exhibit the same english diction that Marian Anderson. However, he seems "bear" the note quite nicely when he slides to notes in the phrase "love me sweet" and at the end "I love you". Also, he has a pretty noticeable southern twang that I detect very minutely in Marian Anderson's rendition of "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child".

John Raitt and David Daniels

The emotion in both singers is absolutely incredible, with David Daniels there is incredible emotion and such pure diction. he gestures not only with his eyes, but also with his body and color with dynamics. You can tell just by looking at his performance, how much work he put into the song to emote each emotion and phrase to display it honestly.

John Raitt has a slightly different performance tactic, as he is very stern and walks around quite differently on stage as he shows a range of emotion from happy to surprised, sad, and determined. His confidence and intimidation is quite clear as he embodies his character. He also displays his emotion realistically and honestly. Especially how elated he seems at some points in the song.

English Diction Blog 2

What else do you notice?
Other than the notes and syllables, of which we dilineated upon greatly in our last blog, Tony's HAS phrasing. As opposed to David, whom as you pointed out sings every word and phrase with a similar volume and emphasis, Tony crafts each phrase with a line that has a play, such as "in delay there lies no plenty", but also bends the rhythm and tempo to add even more emphasis to certain words, as well as to draw out the meaning of the phrase.

What are the aspects that make one singer sound professional and accomplished and the other, though talented, less so?
Again, the vastly different phrasing, singing of notes, and syllables make a huge difference, but as the singers fall into diction, to name a few things, Tony's English is more clean and clear. With David's singing, words like "endure" and other simple things like how in the phrase "where are you roaming", how he puts together the words where and are to be "whereare" make it less pleasing to the ear. Another word, "Kiss" is also sounds like "ih" as opposed to Tony's "kiss" which is rounder and more full, instead of chopped off and shallow like David. Finally, a touch different between the two singers is how David scoops into many phrases, in contrast to Tony's clean notes that are more clean in their approach.

It’s easy to say that one sounds better but why is it?
Well, it certainly isn't the recording. Overall, the reason for one sounding more professional (better) is the combination of all these harmonious techniques, such as shaping of vowels, playing, but not too much, with the phrasing, and finally the different emphasis in each syllable, as oppose to David's equal emphasis.

Between two ashen grooves... err... groves

What do you hear that's different in the two singer's approaches to diction?

The most obvious choice that is made per Peter Pears singing is his clean diction. It is very simple to understand what he is saying because of the way he uses each vowel and consonant clearly and cleanly, without sloshing them together into notes and syllables. In contrast, Ms. Lemiux's diction isn't as easy to understand, as she reserves the right to explode into any of her constants, they are barely noticeable. Her singing is more concerned with the sound and vowels and less of the text.

Can you understand one more than the other?

Between the two singers, it is much easier for my ear to perceive the diction of Peter Pears over Marie-Nicole Lemieux.

Does one appear to be singing notes and syllables whereas one is singing words?

Marie-Nicole Lemiux is most definitely singing notes and syllables over words. Though the sound is pleasant, it is very difficult to understand what she is saying per her diction. Peter Pears is definitely singing words, which, for me at least, makes it easier to understand the meaning of the song in the context of the words.

http://clementenglishdiction.blogspot.com/