This book is meant primarily for singers, but it may be of equal inter-

est to those who concern themselves with singing--voice teachers, coaches,

accompanists, choral and orchestral conductors, editors and composers. It

deals with Italian phonetics as used in lyric diction and considers the

changes that occur between the manner in which a language is spoken and

the way in which it is sung. These changes are due to the inherent differ-

ences between speech and song. Since it is written for the singer whose

native language is English and who wishes to sing Italian, it i~, ~ased on a

constant comparison between Italian and English.

Through the centuries, Italian has played a very special role in the

training )f voices, a role directly linked with a particularly fortunate pat-

tern of speech sounds which is conducive to singing, and to releasing the

voice. To achieve such a release, and to obtain the best vocal results, it is

imperative that the pattern of Italian speech sounds, and the norms govern-

ing them in words and phrases, be understood and adhered to. Unless they

are, it is senseless to train young vocalists to sing arias from the Italian

repertoire. Only too frequently students are allowed to sing Italian while

using native English speech sounds.

English-speaking singers tend to believe that Italian is easy to sing.

Compared to French and German, Italian may seem easy but this is de-

ceptive, for the phonetic principles underlying Italian are often diametrically

opposed to those of English. To master them, concentrated study and prac-

tice are required.

This book is planned to guide the singer, by means of discussion and

drill, toward the acquisition of an efficient and effective Italian diction. This

in turn should lead him to increased physiological freedom and vocal

growth.