The Final German Blog

On Prometheus (the first video)

It sounds so romantic when it’s read this way, I just really love the way he pronounces the ending consonants so softly. It sounded really clean the way he read, full of emotion, but not overly emoted or overly low in volume… until the end when he finishes, using “den” really harshly to signal the end of the poem.

2nd reading

This one instantly I loved more, he used the ending consonants and volume throughout. Now I understand why German sounds so angry to people. The diction really supplemented the content of the poem, really nice the way he uses “dem” and all the closed vowels. the word dunst had a really nice delayed st at the end of it. Operfsteurem was a really nice word as well, you could really hear the emphasis on the ‘steur’ part.

3rd reading.

Oh yes, I love the introduction of this piece. This sounds like a live reading as opposed to one done in the studio. From the very first he gets me with the long vowels. “übe”

Fischer-Dieskau—

All his consonants are extremely clean — dunst, gleich, köpft. Despite the volume of the song, he still manages to make the ch final consents soft in the context of the word. In his interpretation there just seems to be more dynamics, beyond that he’s helped my he music, he just seems to make more out of the words and phrases themselves. 

Matthias Goerne

Saving the best for last? Between the two I still like Dieskau’s more I think.  Something I really hear well in his recording is how well he rolls his r’s like in the word Bergeshöhn. On the word “Götter” it sounds a little more open then closed. Do my ears deceive me? Something that he doesn’t do is roll his r’s so much, Dorothea Röschmann seemed to roll her r’s everywhere, even when I thought there was only one flipped r’.

am Spinnrade

Christian Oelze, for being a tour-de-force song, she has such a lyrical voice, and I love it! You can really hear hear the rolled r’s, but no vowel or consonant is misplaced. Often when I hear this aria done by young singers, they seem to try to over-muscle the phrases, and her breaths are inaudible and her demeanor with the text is quite calm. It sort of reminds me of a frog in a slowly boiling pot. In the same way her voice bubbles over but never loses its ring or intensity. Especialy when the text stops with “und at, seen Kuss” she does a really good job of using the [x] and also the [k] of Kuss to accentuate the text there.

For Angelika Kirchschlager: how can you not love to say Angelika? I like the idea of humanized performance, because operatic works and even art-song can be so esoteric and over the top, they do a really good job of bringing the energy to a digestible level. Her voice is just one great stream of sound. I also enjoy the tempo that she takes, a bit slower than Oelze at times, but just as meaningful. When she dips into the low notes on the word “zerstückt”, the note is so full and she still gets the “ckt” out at an acceptable volume. The r’s are really strange, almost imperceptible. It must be a dialect!

The Last Magic... Flute

Wow, what beautiful singing. Really hard to believe that is coming out of a person when she presses the gas on those notes. It is so powerful it’s overwhelming. Something that I’m not sure how German it really is, is how she (at the end) sang a very rolled r in the word “Ruh’” before the im Tode sein— she used the rolled r to catapult herself to the top. A seemingly simple aria, she does a good job of rolling r’s throughout, such as in the word “Tränen” and the doubled m’s in Nimmer and kommt. I love the “ist” before the word es where she has a dramatic glottal stop. Even on tricky descending lines such as on “ewig” she still manages to put a nice little soft ch at the. And even on “zurück” she puts a soft k. She doesn’t make an event out of the individual sounds, rather, she lines them up with the meaning of the text. 

The second video is great. They coordinate their language very nicely when they are both singing together. Nice ending on the word “Lieb” and additionally on the word “deutlich”, they coordinate the ch sound very nicely. “Nichts” as well, has a nice ch sound to it. The v of Weib is great as well. You also get a very clear ending t’s “Götter” wherein they have stops between the first part of the word and second part.

The Presents of a Rose.

It’s so nice to have just one video to really focus, thank you for the relief! Joyce is one of my favorite Mezzo-Soprano’s, and Diana Damrau is one of the best singing actresses of our time!  The first time I heard the presentation of the rose was at Songfest, Susanne Mentzer was singing it to another soprano in the program. I was stunned by its beauty the first time, as I am now with this excerpt. 

You were so right about the sound on these high notes, she makes them sound so seamless, it’s almost a wonder they still sound like words, like “himmel”. 

The preparation of the consonants in the word by Damrau “stricke” seem so interesting to me, in a way, she almost holds the vowel hostage and breaks before the ck part of the word in order to really get a good k sound. Both of their diction is superb! Not to mention their voices sound fantastic together. You get a lot of good ’s’ sounds on vergessen, and a nice vocalized t on the word “tod” from Joyce. 

Light Listening, more like Dipthong City.

Wagner! Meier was a Wagner singer wasn’t she? We’ve heard the voice and now we get to hear the music!

Re: Kurt Moll.

He had a way with dynamics, and really mastering that seemingly effortless stillness on stage. You can really tell from he first phrase he really knows the language. “mitsammen” has excellent doubled m’s! The o-slash on Hört is perfect. He rolls his r’s expertly. Lot’s of prayer needed for this video. It’s interesting that there is a forest and you get to just enjoy the stylized acting and space of the music while in the trees. The f in “auf” is really nice. The double f in “hoffen” is equally nice. With his singing, you really feel more of the text in the context of the music, because he delivers it so well. Chewing the dipthongs as well, like in the word “einzig”, you can hear the clear delineation of the a and the i sound.

Ben Heppner, heldentenor.

There’s a certain type of anticipation that I get listening to Wagner, knowing that something huge is going to come out of these voices. This guy is fantastic, his notes are nothing less than soaring. Talk about diphthongs, all the “um” words are excellent, “wunderbaum” “Schaun” (this one stuck out as particlulary nice, “Liebstraum”. In the second verse I love the way he goes from “ich” to “schaut” with the soft ç so seamlessly. Sometimes I wish he’d give more v on the word Weib, as he is going to a high note, maybe that would help him spin it up there, though he seems to do it without any extra effort. I really enjoy his voice. There is so much gusto in his instrument.

Mack Attack.

As a huge Weil Lover, I’m thrilled that you picked this piece. I should have realized that Lotte Lenya was his wife! 

Hearing Hildegard Knef is funny at first. From the way she sings/speaks the text, it seems like she understands the song, but her face during the piece for film… it’s creepy as hell. It’s all kind of one dynamic. But I really get the the soft ç and the hard k from her voice. 

Don’t know why Sting choose this song in German… very strange. I hate that I had to find 5 words… I had to listen to it multiple times to find the most obvious choices, there are so many I’m not a big fan of Sting singing in German… it’s overall just bad! 

Ok… 8 Words — 

Strand — does not pronounce sh sound, or the rolled r, or a t at the end.

mancher — was with a k instead of a ç

jenny — should by a j-glide… (does this count?)

geht — should be a closed e

fragt — didn’t hear a t, and the g wasn’t a k

und— all of them don’t have t’s at the end.

Schaaaanen… instead of Schönen with an o slash

Oh Bobby Darin.

Rückert-Lieder

This piece is fantastic, not only because of the density of the text, but because of the lyrical nature itself. I absolutely love Mahler. With how slow the piece itself goes, it is nice to hear the text by itself. In a way, it’s very matter of fact about the emotional state of the narrator, ready for death, lost to the world. It’s relatable because of the feeling of despair. Mahler was bi-polar, and I don’t doubt that he could connect to this text because of the depressive side of his own emotions.

Waltraud Meier has a weight of her voice which I love. You can really hear how open German vowels can be with her voice in words like gestorben and glauben. She does a really nice job of working the ending e’s in words like “lange.” She vibrates through each pitch but keeps the word accent modest so that you still understand the words. Something to note is her interpretation of the word “weltgetümmel” which sounded less ooo and more uh. I wonder why that is. She really understands the rubato and you can really hear how exposed her voice as it sings with the orchestra. She is beautiful… 

These two interpretations are vastly different. Janet Baker has a much more subtle tone it seems. Where Meier had a lot of weight to her voice, Ms. Baker uses, in some places, a more breathy tone. I wish I could hear more doubled consents in words like gekommen and vernommen. I love the clarity in her tone on the high notes, and how easily she descends down the scale. Her ending [x] consonants are softer than I expect them to be, but the language choices she makes seem to go well with the mood of the piece. I also enjoyed the word “wirklich” that she used, accenting the [v] to spin into the word.

The choral version is interesting, because what you feel in the weight of the sound you lose the tempo of the original. There is a sense of loosing time with the Mahler original, and in this place it is replaced with a moving ethereal grace. As you noted, the consonants in this are pretty clean. It’s incredible to hear a choir with that kind of precision and dynamic.

Ze Bromances

The most important piece I think you noted in this blog was, “the ease of technique” which has is an aspect you’ve hinted at in class. Good singing technique involves proper language approach as well. Sometimes the way in which you sing a oo vowel can brighten the pitch or darken it depending on how forward you’re speaking it. As it relates to the language, the technique of the vowel can be bad enough to flatten or sharpen with your pitch in context to the entire phrase you are singing.

More than I notice the language of Mr. Wunderlich in Dies Bildnis, more obvious is how musical he is with the language. He has a very measured and calm way of singing that knows exactly its size but doesn’t spend too much time on any one note or consonant. His consonants [ç] and [x] are incredibly soft, but vibrates through every voiced and unvoiced consonant. “ich fühl' es”;”Doch fühl' ichs” His line is impeccable. Throughout his singing he definitely keeps a consistent ring, no matter what dynamic. And hey, if I sounded like that I’d probably tilt my head back as much as he does as well. 

In the 1st Schubert Song, there is an incredible change in the color of his voice from the more operatic works. He was more breathy with his tone, especially on the descending passages “Röslein auf der Heiden.” he puts the breaks in the words in such a way that you still know what they are. I also loved the t’s at the end of the high “rot” every time. It wasn’t a separate event, nor did it take away from the phrase itself. In two spots before this, however, he didn’t voice very well the “n” in “doch kein Weh” or “es eben leiden.” But it sure did sound good. In this situation I’d probably sacrifice the ’n’ just a little bit if it meant having a good as line as Mr. Wunderlich.

Having heard Die Forelle so many times in class, it is refreshing to hear such a clear interpretation by this man. He isn’t too text-y in that he (like as in all the other songs) keeps singing more about the phrase than the words. He doesn’t clip “rute” like some people do, and in addition, he doesn’t spent as much time on his “s” initial consonants, instead he focuses more on the vowels.

OK, I hate this guy. Really, in that last song his voice sounds so honest and pure, with a fine tenor ‘ping’ to it. Having never heard this song, it trumps and sounds better than my favorite Tom Jones song… Delilah. It is crazy to think that this song isn’t in it’s original language. It’s as if it is possible to make anything inherently German. His voice seems in a way, immortalized. I would have loved to hear what he sounded like 4-10 years with him not enduring a freak drunken stair accident. 

Ich habe genug, tonight before intermission.

Listening to Quasthoff I notice that the tempo seems way too fast. It almost seems that the text in some places are clipped some of his r’s aren’t rolled very much. Also, lots of the long phrases are straight-toned. In other places, the word stress is better, as in the second full entrance to the erblickt part. Even though the piece is much faster, he does a good job of executing some the text. Some of his vowels, especially “aa” seem awfully bright to my ear. After listening to it a second time, the tempo didn’t seem AS quick— some of his ‘der’ words sounded more like open eh's to me. In contrast to a lot of singers, Quashoff seems to really take delight in adding in making pronounced ending consonants. Not to say they are wrong, but it sounds probably 25%-40% more than most german singing I have heard thus far while doing these blogs. Strangely enough, some of the ending [t] like in the word “heiland” are VERY soft, and almost don’t seem to have a [t] at all.

Of course I listened to papa Dieskau second, because he truly is a master of interpretation and it was easy to find comparisons after listening to two distinctly different singers. The tempo to my ears immediately seems more reverent to the topic of the music, the Virgin Mary. In the very first few phrase Diskau does not make a big deal out of the ending consonants in “genug”. He does however, in the word “heiland” pronounce the [t] but very expertly, there is even space between heiland and der frommen without breathing. Diction wise, I also hear the double mm in frommen vibrated. In the same way some of the ’n’ ending consonants are vibrated as well with contrast to Quasthoff who does not. Also, he really uses the ‘f’ in hoffen dramatically, which I enjoy. His ending consonants to the word blickt are very constant, one can hear the [k] and the [t] separately .

“Ich habe genug” has definitely progressed my musical understanding, at least of baroque music anyway. Though I have had some opportunity to work on music with an orchestras, chamber music in some ways foreign to me and it has been a treat to work on this piece with Dr. Marshall and Sarah Keadle. It is so important with a long piece like this get the word stress and phrasing in the right place otherwise it sounds blocky. I feel really lucky to have the resources to do this piece with such an expert on baroque music.

3 Brahms Vergebliches Ständchen

Of course Rothenberger being the “strangest” voice, I had to start with her first. Her ending consonants are very pronounced compared to the other two. The pattern I have noticed with German diction ending consonants is how important and yet simultaneously unimportant they are. Some of her oo vowels seem more much more oo than the other two. Another strange vowel I notice is the öffne mir” which almost sounds like a schwa vowel instead of an umlaut sound.

Schawrzkopf:

The original link was dead, so I listened to this recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bp9OqKX108 finding a video for this woman singing this song was extremely easy, and after listening it’s very easy to understand why. Her interpretation is extremely musical. Though I’m sure that her mouth isn’t making gigantic words and diction, though I can almost imagine her singing this song with a coyness and a litheness similar to that of a ballet dancer. Beyond her just being a fantastic singer, what I hear is her using the ending consonants lightly, instead of really spending time on them. Sometimes her ending d’s [t] are softer than other times.

Christa Ludwig 

She is really theatrical in this performance, especially  on the “Öffne mir” parts, she really digs into the darkness of the ö sound. Even though she seems to scoop a little on some of the pitches, it does seem very intentional. In general, her voice sounds a lot darker. Her vowels especially seem dark compared to the lightness of Schwarzkopf. 

It’s interesting that you mentioned turning pages for this woman. The two times I’ve turned pages in my life have been for Dr. Peter Marshall, the very first time was for none other than Jamie Barton.

On Olaf Bär

The first thing I notice about this particularly fantastic singer is the way each of the words fit together in a cohesive phrase. There’s no question about the umlauts when he uses them, the are very pure and seem almost dark. The way in which he puts on the [x] at the last moment really accents the word and doesn’t take too much time away from what he is singing. The [ҫ] are particularly soft in it pronunciation. You can tell from the inflection of the text that he really understands the push and pull of the texts. He does a fantastic job of changing dynamics and color. After listening a few times, it doesn’t seem like he rolls his r that much, and when he does it’s a very soft and slight roll. The second video in particular I had to listen to quite a few times, it is really hard to hear the video because of how quietly he sings. In particular, it sounds like his German is pretty standard, he sounds like a very sweet and soft singer, but one with a lot of power that can be made equally with his diction and his dynamic.

"Them Boys Can sing"

The last time I sang this arrangement of Ständchen was for Graham Johnson in 2013 at Songfest. His response was… “interesting.” However, the diction of these children is more than just interesting, their diction is spot on and very clean, everything sound very forward with excellent diction.

After listening to the german interview one gets a very good sense of the ends of words. For example wichtig has a very unique sh at the end that gives one an idea on how to sing the same consonant. Also, from listening to native germans speak you can get an idea of word stress, and also how quickly they speak. Despite the speed, you still get a sense of inflection. It is more soft than people make it out to be stereotypically. The ends of words with an en ending or schwa sounds is almost un pronounced. 

German Impressions

The impression that Hitler gave was one of force, which he exemplified with his use of consonants, the strong rolled r's and brightness. Quasthoff speaking was darker, a little smoother, and all-over softer.