Simon Neal is back with us this week discussing the text "The Vagabond". We go through the text, focusing on the problem with Ls and Rs in English, dealing with pianissimi and why we should sing pure Italianate vowels in every language. I'll also talk about a phonetic concept for unstressed I (between the closed [i] and open [I] sounds) that Jan & Catherine McDaniel (English diction teachers at the Bass School of Music, Oklahoma City University) sent me, the SCHWI.

"The Vagabond" is the first poem in Robert Louis Stevenson's Songs of Travel, and the first song in Ralph Vaughan Williams' song cycle of the same name. I found some interesting youtube clips of this song, Thomas Allen with Simon Rattle and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a very early recording of Peter Dawson in 1923 (pianist isn't listed), with lots of rrrrrolled Rs. The Bryn Terfel CD is also quite good but I couldn't find a youtube with that version. The previous entries that I talk about are Episodes 48 and 49 for tongue exercises, and Jason Nedecky's Treatment of R and Pronunciation Shifts for the HAND and ASK words.

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