Product Description

Diction for Singers guides singers to the pronunciation of English, Italian, Latin, German, French, and Spanish. The easy navigation leads the reader from the orthographic spelling to the sound, so she can see the general rules for spellings. Each language section includes quick reference tables showing all vowels and consonants with their common letter groups, and special pronunciations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #429552 in Books
• Published on: 1990-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 279 pages

About the Author
Joan Wall is a voice professor at Texas Woman's University, where she has taught diction courses for more than twenty years. She was a member of National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), presenting seminars and workshops, and has had a celebrated international performing career, singing as a principal with the Metropolitan Opera, the Deutche Opera Berlin, and in concerts, operas, and recitals throughout the United States.

She has sung under the direction of such conductors as Erich Leinsdorf, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Boris Goldovsky, Alfred Wallenstein, Jean Morel, Fausto Cleva, Anshel Brusilow, and Paul Hindemith.

Wall is the author of International Phonetic Alphabet for Singers and coauthor of Diction for Singers, The Singer's Voice video series, Sing! Text and songs for voice class, and Excellence in Singing.

Robert Caldwell is president and CEO of Caldwell Publishing Company, which he founded in 1999. The company's mission is to make difficult ideas easier to teach and understand, particularly ideas in human anatomy and physiology.

Caldwell Publishing Company is now the parent company of PST...Inc., which he founded in 1987 to produce books for professional musicians.

He has authored and coauthored several best-selling books, including The Performer Prepares, Diction for Singers, the Singers' Edition Series, and his latest, the five-volume Excellence in Singing.

He has written, produced, directed, and animated several successful films, including the Human Voice series and Human Hearing series. These books and films are staples in colleges and universities throughout the United States and abroad, including the Juilliard School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and Indiana University.

An accomplished pianist and singer, having earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in music, he also lectures and conducts master classes. A native of southern Louisiana, he now resides in Redmond, Washington with his daughter, Katelyn.

Customer Reviews

Excellent necessity
This book is a must-have if you are to sing successfully. It is pretty easy to understand, and it introduces IPA without confusing everyone. There are a few mistakes in it but almost every book has mistakes in it. Excellent and easy to understand. Get it if you are a singer!

Diction for Singers
With all due respect, well, yes, this book is of GENERAL use-there is a certain convenience in having all these languages in one book. And it maybe a way to begin this type of study. But, alas, there are so many aspects about diction not even addressed. Mistakes abound, and whereas those can be corrected, what about the information that is simply not included? The singer using this book will indeed gain a smattering of diction in all languages, but for adequate preparation for a classical singing career, singers should further their education with more specific textbooks on the languages in question. For instance Evelina Colorni's Italian book, Nico Castel's Spanish offerings, Glenn Paton's Gateway to German Diction, Thomas Grubb's Singing in French or Eileen Davis' new book Sing French. Shortcuts are exactly that, SHORTCUTS! If you are a serious singer, shortcuts just don't work. Get with it-study the details in order to be really competitive in your art. Would you shortcut your vocal technique? Of course not! Nor should you shortcut any part of your training. If you are a diction teacher of students targeting a performance career, please consider the future of your students and the foundation you are providing them.

A must have book
Diction for Singers is a great book, it has helped my singing tremendously! It gives detailed information about a variety of languages and their pronunciation! I recommend this book for any singer!