THE POEM SINGS:

IDENTIFYING THE SINGING FEATURES OF A POETIC TEXT WITH AN

ANALYSIS OF LE CIMET~ÈRE MARINBY PAUL vALÉRY.

by

Elizabeth Esther Bdovitch

B.A. Honom, McGill University, 1972

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS

in the Department

of

French

Q Elizabeth Esther Brodovitch 2000

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

July 2000

Ali ri@ rcsmed This work may not be

nproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy

or othcr means, without permission of the author.

The author has granted a nom exclusive licence allowing the National Li'brary of Canada to reproduce, lm, distri'bute or di copies of this thesis in microform, paper or electmnic formats.

The author retains ownershlp of the copyright in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extmcts fiom it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's -ssioa.

L'auteur a accordé une licence non exchuive permettant à la Bibliothéque nationale du CanaAli de reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou vendre des copies de cette thèse sous fa forme de microficheffilm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique.

L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de ceile-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement reproduits sans son autorisation.

Poeticians &bute a "singing" quality to a text, but without considering the

physical processes of singing and spoken performance which prepare the voice to

ûansform &en text into sound. 1 propose to evduate text content and its performance

in the light of musical characteristics, using Le Cimetière marin, composed by French

Symbolist poet Paul Valéry, as a basis for M e r analysis.

Chapter 2 clarifies tbe distinguishing featutes of music and singing and establishes

criteria ofperfodiciîy, continuity and extemion of voculic duration which can be apptied

to paetic recitation. 1 examine singing techniques of breath and resonance management,

as well as theaûical approaches to the appraisal of textual phonetic and rhythmic features.

The chapter concludes with a review of Valéry's poetic and musical philosophy and his

knowledge of the process of voice-in-performance.

In Chapter 3, a summary of Le Cimetière marin's phonetic content, produced with

the aid of an eiectronic database, confirms dut Valéry's poetic use of souud, compared to

a prose passage written by Valdry and to a general average of French sound occurrence,

favours sounds valued by perfamers for their projectabilty and continuity, M m e r

rather than place of articulation of the text's phonetic content detemiines the continuity of

breath flow and its effect on vocalic durational extension. Valéry's placement of sound in

on-set situations and closed-syllable structure supports this conclusion.

Chapter 4 focuses on the rhythmic durational extensions of the syllables and on the

e muet's role in the pacing of the performer's breath. Readings by Henri RoUan, Paul

Mankin, Jean Vilar, and Paul Vaiw provide a performance corpus upon which

measurements of syllabic time durations may be made using the Computerized Speech

Laboratoxy. The results suggest a re-evaluation of the caesura's finidon in terms of

sound delivery rather than sound hkmption, and provide evidence that the readers agree

in their choices of durational extensions, both phonetic and rhythmic. I conclude that the

text itself can facilitate a more musical deiivery regardless of the extemal conditions of

performance (intonation, voice quality, speed of delivery, etc.), and that the methodology

developed effectively coordinates performance techniques with text analysis.

Les quaiitks que I'on peut énoncer d'une voix humaine sont les mêmes que I'on doit étudier et donner daos la poésie.

Et le "magnétisme" de la voix doit se transposer dans L'alliance mystérieuse et extra-juste des idées ou des mots.

La continuité du beau son est essentieile.

Paul Valéry

Cahiers II: 1088

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is my pleasure to thank Dr. Phyîiis Wrenn, the Senior Member of my committee

for her guidance. C'&ait un beau voyage.

I would iiûe to thank Dr. Stephen Steele, the second member of the cornmittee,

particularly for his editotial observations.

I would also like to thank Dr. Zita McRobbie, of the Simon Fraser Department of

Linguistics, who acted as Externai Examiner. Dr. McRobbie's comments clarified many

points for me and were greatly appreciated.

Dr. Wiiam Wider of the University of British Columbia D e m e n t of French

wiliingly assisted me in the use of the TACT computer program.

1 am indebted to Sandra Head, Vancouver voice hstructor and theatre coach, for ber

comments on singing technique, particularly with teference to the breath.

1 was continuaily sustained by the interest and care which the teaching and

administrative staff of the Simon Fraser University Department of French extended to

me; in particuiar 1 would like to thank Ms. Rita Gould, Undergraduate Advisor, for her

support.

A speciai thank-you to Mary and Jefney who advised me in the art of Thesis

Defence. Thank-you, Abi and Sophie, and Florence and John, for your unwavering

support. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Jean-Claude Brodovitch who helped me with

computer operations and statisticai calculations, and who devoted many hours of

conversation to U s topic. There are not enough words in any language to thank him.

Table of Contents

. . Approval .................................................................................................................... u ... Abstract .......................................................................................................................... ur

Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... vi . . ....................................................................................................... Table of Contents vil

........................................................................................ List of Figures and Tables x

1 . Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 2 . Defining the Singing Elements of Poetry ......................................................... 6

2.1. Music And Poetry: The Search for a Comparative Methodology ....................... 6 2.1.1. Discursive Systems: the Search for Musical Signification .......................... 6

.................................. 2.1 .2 . Formal Systems: the Organization of Sound in Tie 7 2.1.3. Definhg the Terms of Cornparison ............................................................. 8

2.2. Poeticians and the Musical Text ........................................................................ 11 2.2.1. The Euphonious Text: Ease of Reception or Ease of Transmission .......... 14

..................................................................... 2.3. The Musical Production of Sound 17 ........... 2.3.1. Music and Singing: the Raduction of Periodic, Continuous Tone 17

............... 2.3.2. The Performing Voice: Sound Projection and Sound Extension 19 ...................................................................... 2.4. Paul Valdry and the Singing Text 32

2.4.1. Valéry and the Inner Voice ........................................................................ 33 2.4.2. Valdry and the Performing Voice .............................................................. 34

......................................................................................................... 2.5. Conclusion 37

................................................ . 3 The Sound Structure of Le Cimetière marin 39 ........................................................................ 3.1. The Text of Le Chetière mmin 39

3.2. Vaky and Sound ......................... .... ................................................................. 41 3.3. The Sound Structure of Le Cimetiare marin ..................................................... 42

.................................. 3.3.1. Sorting the Sounds: the Use of Cornputer Analysis 42 3.3.2. Preparing the Text for Electtonic Analysis ................................................ 46 3.3.3. Processing the Data .................................................................................... 47 3.3.4. Frequency of Occurrence of Individual Sounds in Le Cimetière marin

and Images de la France ........................................................................... 48 3 -3 . 5. Frequency of Occurrence of Sounds in the individual Stanzas of Le

Cimetière marin ......................................................................................... -56 ................................. 3.4. Continuity in the Sound Structure of Le Cimetière murin 60

3.4.1. Flow of the Airsûeam and Extension of Sound Duration ......................... 60 3.4.2. The Distribution of Consonants in Syllable-Final Position in

Le Cimefiire murin .................................................................................... 61 3.4.3, Anaiyzing the Text for the Extension of Sound Duration

.......................................................................................... in Performance 67 ........................................................................................................ . 3 .5 Conclusion -72

4 . The Rhythmic Structure of Le Cimetière marin ......................................... 75 ................................................................................ 4.1. Music. Poetry and Rhythm 75

4.2. Vakry and Rhythm ............................................................................................ 77 ................................................ 4.3. The Rhythmic Structure of Le Cimetière marin 80

4.3.1. The Hemistich Divisions. the Enjambed Caesm and the

.......................................................................................... Lyric Caesura ..81 ........................................................... 4.3.2. Duple and Triple Rhythmic b u p s û4

............................................................... 4.3.3. Syiiable Duration and the e muet 88

.......................................... 4.4. The Rhythmic Performauce of Le Cimetière marin 93 ......................... 4.4.1. Measuring Performance: Finclhg a Basis of Cornparison 93

4.4.2. The Spoken Performances ......................................................................... 94 4.4.3. Measuring Duration ................................................................................... 96

4.5. Conclusion .............................................................................................. 1 13

.............................................................................................................. 5 . Conclusion 1 6 Appendix A . Texts of Le Cintetiére marin and Images de la France ............................. 121 Appendix B . Taggiag the Text for Electronic Analysis ............................................. 129

B . 1 Identifying the Grapheme Groups .................................................... 1 30 ....................................................................... B.2 Tagging the Marker File 130

Appendix C . Frequency of Occurrence of French Sounds in Images de la France and Le Cimetière marin, Compared to Wioland Rankings ......................... 138

.................................. Appendix D . Corpus of Closed Syllables in Le Cimetière marin, 139 ....................................... Appendix E . The Metrical Groupiags of Le Cimetière marin, 148

Appendix F . Syllabic Durations in Centiseconds, of Stanzas 10 and 13 . of Le Clmehère marin ................................................................................ 149

Appendix G . Relative Syllabic Durations in Staazas 10 and 13 . . ................................................................................ of Le CzmetiPre marin 153

Bibiiography .......................................................................................................... 157

List of Figures and Tables

Figure 1. Two captures of Paul Valéry Reading St. 10: 1 of Le Cimetière marin. ............,. 99 Figure 2. Voice printouts of Mankin, Rollan, Vdéry, and Vilar, showing continued

articulation through the caesura of St. 102 of Le Cimetière marin. ................. 103 Table 1. Frequency of Occurrence of French Sounds in Le Cimetière marin and

Images de la France Compared to Wioland Compilation (1972). ..................... 49 Table 2. Frequency of Occurrence of Consonants in Word-Initial Position . .. in Le Cimeaere marin, .................................... , ...................... ..... ,....... ... ,... ......... 53 Table 3. Frequency of Occurrence of Consonants in Syllable-Closing Position . .. in Le Cimehere marin. ........................................................................................ 64 Table 4. Average Duration in Centiseconds of Stanza Verselines of Four Readers ........ 100 Table 5. Duration in Centiseconds of the Hemistich and Caesura Verseline Divisions

of St. 10: 1 and St. 13:s for Mankin, Rollan, Valéry, and Vilar. ......................... 101 Table 6. Duration in Centiseconds of the Caesura Between Hemistich 1 and 2 ......... ..... 104 Table 7. SyUable Duration Ratios of St. 10:4: for Mankin, Rollan, Valéry, and Vilar ..., 108 Table 8, The Durational Ratios of Syilables with [ER] and [E] Graphemes

in St.10:l-23 ................................................. . .................. . . ............... , 1 1 1

1. Introduction

When the presence of music was separated fiom poetry, or no longer automatically

assumed to be present, French pe ts of the latter-haif of the nineteenth century sought to

redefine the musical elements of poetry in tems of the "music" inherent in the words

themselves. Zn 1882, Verlaine had published his celebrated poem Art poétique, which

opens with the injunction "De la musique avant toute chose" (Verlaine, 1969: 261). Art

poétique was, in fact, an ironic rebuttal to Boileau's L 'Artpoétique written in 1674, in

which that author had maintained that clarity of expression must be one of the guiding

principles of literary endeavour (1966: 160). Verlaine's response was to describe verse as

an adventure, as a lightness of being which fies forward unencumbered by the weight of

predetermined eloquence, and as a "chanson grise", in which the power of suggestion is a

musical characteristic which takes precedence over the literary capacity of the poem to

inform its listener or reader (261-262).

"...reprendre à la Musique leur bien" wrote Paul Valéry (E.1: 1272)1, but it appears

that Valéry was echoing his mentor and principal representative of the Symbolist

movement, Stéphane Mallarmé, who wrote in a letter to René Ghil in 1885: "Cet acte de

j u s . restitution qui doit être le nôtre, de tout reprendre à la musique ..." (cited in Stimpson, 1984: 285). The Syrnbolists viewed the poem not as language iransformed into

a musical product, but rather as the result of an underlying network of semantic and

sound interactions. Words were heavy with substance, and their organization into surface

manifestations of souad and metrical patterns generated c'resonances" of deep interna1

response in the individual's consciousness, "...a music", concludes Stimpson,

%depend&t of the art of sounds" (1984: 10).

- -

1 Vaky's writiag is published in two voIumes entitied ûhures, edited by Hyticr. From 1894 to 1945, Vaiéry also mahtained a daily private joumaI, in which he recordcd his perceptions of the living wodd and his f8t-mging intercsts. Thcsc 261 workbooks have been «iited mto two volumes entitied Cahies (Ed. J. Robinson). 1 have abbnviated nfmnces fiam ûbra and Cuhièrs as (E.i/Ii and C.VII.

Valéry was always clear that the music of poetry resided in the capacities of the

human voice, both spirituaüy and physically (Stimpson, 1984: 210-21 1). The singing

quaiity of language in the poetic context absorbed Valéry's interest throughout his writing

career, and he continually defined and redehed the qualities of music, poetry, and poetic

singing.

Like Valdry, 1 wished to investigate the singiog quaiity to which poets and

poeticians refer in their analysis of the poetic text. The description of poetry as "musical"

and as "siaging" interested me because as a professional singer, 1 had spent many years

working on breath control, vowel production, range extension, and refînement of tonal

quality. 1 dehed singing as the delivery ofa particuiar quality of sound, and as a body

experience that was almost a form of physicai exercise. But in what way could the

"musical" substance of the written text be described in terms of a physical process? Any

text can be sung. Was it possible that the poetic text itself could contain identifiable

elements which would facilitate the delivery of the singing sound without musical

accompaniment? It is, of course, the singing qualities of the spokn performance which is

the nature of poetic recitation aud which must fonn the bais of this discussion. This

criterion provided an initial point of departure, and 1 began a search for a "musical" poetic

text by listening to spoken recitations of French poetry-

Those working with the tepertoire of the French mélodie2 become quickly familiar

with the poetry of the Symbolists. Debussy set texts by Malland, Pierre Loufs, and

Tristan l'Hermite, but the majority of his song output is reserved for the poetry of

Verlaine (Bemac, 1970: 154-155). Having sung these son@ many times, 1 was entirely

A composition for voicc and piano accompanmicnt. Hector Beclioz is credittd for being the nrst to apply this ~ n n to a genre of musical compwition which began as a ronrrmce and cvolved into the mt song (Roe, 1997: 36).

familiar with the musical settings and rhybüc durations that the composer had chosen

for the poetic syllables.

However, when 1 listeneci to spoken recordings of the same texts, the poems did not

seem rhythmic or "musicalyy at ail. The tecitations varied a great deai in dynamics and

tempi, but they lacked rhyîbmic definition and did not convey a sense of that glowing

musicality which had made the mélodies so acclaimed. Perhaps the poetic musicalness lay

simply in the composer's ability to incorporate poetic words into a beautiful melody, and

the reai musicality lay in the musical harmonies and rhythm superimposed on the poetic

text. Gabriel Fauré, using repetitive minor chords in his setting of Verlaine's Prison,

seemed to convey the despair of a wasted iife more effectively than the reader who

delivered the text quickly with little variation in intonation and, it seemed, with no

rhythmic energy.

Three spoken recordings of Le Cimetière marin, read by Paul Maukin, Henri

Rollan, and Jean Vilar, provided my first inimduction to the poetry of Paul Vakry. The

ciifference in the interpretations, one of which stnick me as king entirely musical and

approaching a song-like state, suggested that musicality and "singability" (which are not

the same thing) could be realized in the spoken performance. The vitality of Vilar's

interpretation of Le Cimetière marin was initiaily so striking compared to the Rollan and

Mankin versions that 1 wanted to know why this performance was so effective.

Nevertheless, the quality of Vilar's voice was exceptionally beautiful,3 and it was

possible that it was not the musical fmtures of the text, but, rather, the voice itself (Like a

composer's setting), wbich had imposed the! musical conditions on the words.

However, not oniy did Vilar's performance appniach the resonance of music, but

the spacing of a series of sound clusters seemed to culminate in a blossoming of sound

Probably whaî Wim-WiIson calls the Wimdaful Voice (1993: 93-94), -an instrument of such great remnaacc that it could be called the vocal equivaicnt of a StradivaMJ violin.

fiom wliich the meaning emerged. Al1 of the performances were accomplished without

the benefits of the strong melodic and rhythmic conditions which a musical setting

imposes on the direction ofthe text. But Vilar's interpretation suggested that well-defined

sound and rhythmic patterns were indeed present in the text's formal construction, and

b t Viar in some way had most fuliy utilized their presence to accomplish his

transformation of the written text into sound.

If there was a musicality or a singing quality in the words themselves, it was with

the text that the investigation should begin, rather than with a description of the text's

orai performance, since the musicalness of the performer's personal voice quality and the

ski11 of the performer's delivery represents an "extemal musicality", so to speak, which

can influence the listener's perception of the text as musical. On the other hand, the poet

determines the organization of the poetic sound, and the performer, experienced in the

profession of public sound delivery, controls its production. 00th poet and performer

engage in an assesment of the poem's sound and rhythmic content, the performer

preparing the orai delivery as meticulously as the poet organizes the structure. This

suggests that an understanding of performance vocal techniques and their application to

the realization of each sound of the text and the sounds' place in the text's rhythrnic

framework wuld offer valuable insights into the singing character of the poetic text.

Following this iine, 1 will devote the initiai stages of my discussion to a clarification

of techniques of v d production practised by singers and acton. These performance

practices and the singing criteria ofperiodicity, continuity, and extension of vocalic

&ration will guide the subsequent analyses of the sound and the rhythmic structures in

Chapters 3 and 4, respectively, of Le Cimetière murin. The cornputer will prove to be a

usefiil tool, sorting the sounds of the poem efficiently and quickly and directhg the focus

of the discussion to the sounds' manner of articulation and theù relationship to the

aistmm flow which singers and actors maintain as they deliver the text. In Chapter 4,

with the assistance of the CSL (ComputenZed Speech Laboratory), 1 will examine the oral

performances of Le Cimetière marin, as 1 search for evidence that rhythmic short-long

relationsbips of syilable duration, identined in the rhythmic analysis of the text and

recalculated as relative ratios of duration, have been realized by severai speakers-4 This

will ensure a broder base for conclusions bnrsed on performance and eliminate

dependence on the ski11 of one perfomer aione.

Thus, 1 will argue that the singing qualities of the aurai substance of the text can be

evaluated on the basis of that part of the performance pracess which utilizes the =und

and the rhythmc features of the text to guide the pnqamtion of the voice in the

transformation of d e n text into sound, 1 am proposing a two-pronged methodology in

which I combine a formal anaiysis of the written text and its structural arrangement of the

sounds with an analysis of the performer's appwach to the oral delivery of the text. By

clari&ing the characteristics of singing and examining the poetic text in the light of these

characteristics, 1 seek to establish objective criteria, at teast fiom the technical perspective

of performancesriented vocal production, which can be used to evaluate the singing

qualities of a poetic text. 1 must note, however, that this study, whde featuring a review of

Valéry's musico-poetic conceptions and an analysis of bis poem Le Cimetière marin, is

using an individuai's work as a field of operation in order to estabiish a methodology

which couid be applied in a general sense to descriptions ofpoetry as musical, and more

particuiarly as singable.

4 Th, rrcorded corpus bccame ewn more iuîensting because 1 was abIe to add a version of VaIéry hmwif reading smraI stauzas of & Cimeriére marin

2. Defining the Singing Elements of Poetry

2.1 Music and Poetry: the Search for a Comparative Methodology,

In the twentieth century, music and language have been comparai as systems of

discourse with extemal referential fiuictions and as systems of fom which have internal

referential functions.

2.1.1 Dicursive Systems: the Search for Musical Signification.

Current research undertakes to treat language and music not as systems of language

in which meaning is created through binary opposition, but as systems of discourse in

which there is recognition of and response to meaning. In her doctoral thesis, GyUian

Phillips reviews approaches to music as discourse. For example, in the late 1940'~~

Theodore Adomo described the establishment of atonality as a response "...to the decay

of the modem capitalist cultures ..." (1996: 34). Adorno understood music in ideological tams as a sociaiiy produced discourse/text containhg the referentid power to dismpt and

challenge the commodincation of art. Leonad Meyer' theorized that the formai structure

of music represents a self-teferential system; that is, the musical notes relate to me 0th-

in the formai composition, but do not refer to meaning outside the formai structure.

However, Meyer postdates that music's e x t e d referential pwer lies in its ability to

create emotional responses on the part of the Listener (that is music as emotional

discourse), by using dissonance, or non-tesolution of cadences at harmonic closure

points, for example, to create a sense of expectation on the listener's part, If the cadence

resolves to the established tonal centre, the listener's expectations are fulfilled. Phillips

her~elfsuggests that the musicai performance of text, which breaks dialogue into musical

Etnotion and Meaning in Miuic, 1956.

motifs, blurs meaning, leaving the murative "siippery, unfinished, and associationai"

(284). The performer's body becomes the medium which transfers the text to the

audience, but at the same time blurs the written message through sonority, gesture,

presence, movement, voice intonation, and htensity. Phiilips sums up these

interdisciplinary methodologies: "Once language is admitted as being indeterminate,

multivocal, subject to semiotic dimptions (choase your critical paradigm), music is ouly

removed from words by a matter of degree, not by an irreducible binary between meaning

and nonmeaning" (56).

Pbillips' statement underlines the fact that cornparisons based on a matter of degree

avoid the necessity of identifjing what is specific to each area. The qualities of music and

poetry may be studied for their degrees of rapprochement, but 1 think that the more

interesthg observations lie in the definitions of the characteristics which distinguish one

art h m the other. Isolating the most basic units which can convey meaning at the

musical and the linguistic levels is the task of the semioticians? and whether music needr

to convey meaning is, for me, stiii an unanswered question. However, the desire to

compare the two art forms is understandable, particularly as music and poetic language

undoubtedly share formal elements of structuré.

2.1.2 Formal Systems: the Orgaaizrtion of Sound in Time.

Music and language in Western cultures3 shate features of intemal structure and

forma1 organization. They contain identifiable surface structures which relate to each

See, for example, Nattiez, 1. (1974) ~ b l ~ de 3miologic musicale et de poétique". Semiotica XUe: 247-268, and (1977) '"Ttie Conm'bution ofMusical Scmiotics to the Semiotic Discussion in Generaly' in A Perfiuion of S i p , Ed T. Sebeok.

3 My discussion is conducted within îhc context of Western Empan tradition, whose f o d p ~ & c and musical concepts an mtcd m the phiiosopbical thdes of Ancient Gmce.

other to produce a self-contained product, although the nature of the f o m in the two

media and their fiinctional relationship with each other ptovide another direction in this

ongoing discussion.4 The two systems are constmcted with sound units which are

transcribed as written symbols (musical notes, aiphabetic characters) and are read,

moving fiom left to right and down the page (again within the general context of Western

practice). In performance, the sounds of the text and the musical notes are taken off the

page and transmitted acoustically to the listener by the reader, the actor, or the singer.

Music and poetry involve the creation of sound patterns reinforced by repetition and

rhythmic organization. The p e t d e s specific choices of consonants and vowels to

mate alliteration and assonance (and, by extension, rhyme), and arranges these choices in

a series of long and short time durations (either in formai, countable meter, or in fiee

verse), whose length is contained in the syiiable. The composer sets musical pitches in

rhytbmic patterns of uni& of long and short duration, ais0 metered or fiee. The musical

note carries information about both pitch and rhythmic d u e , while in poetry the

spelhgs identm the sound unit, and the syllable (with particular reference to French

versification), composed of one or severai sounds, represents a tirne unit, a "beat" of

longer or shorter duration. This would suggest that in an investigation of the musical and

singing elements of poetry, one of the first tasks would be to analyze the poet's choices of

sounds and rhythmic arrangement of those sounds.

2 . 1 Defining the Termt of Cornparison.

Scholars are advised to be cautiow in th& approach to comparative meâhodoiogy

4 For discussions of poetic form, ste Cohen (1966), Delas and Filliolet (1973), Meschonnic (1970), and Stankicwicz (1977). For cornparisons of music and poetic formai nlationships, scc Brown, 1948; Bmm, 1992; Cone, 1974; Fry (l9S6), Kramer (l984), Schwadron (Nil), Springer (1971), and Wi (1981). See Phillips (1996) for a ccview of pre- and post-1970 interdisciplinary theones of the nfeirnti*ai capaeities of language and music.

of rnusico-lit- study, descriid by Kramer as melo-poetics (Scher, 1992: xiv).

Interdisciplinary investigations of music and poetic text provide a rich field of

investigation and contribute to a deeper understanding and appreciation of each am's

contribution to the finished product.5 But the description of a text in a musicai setting

may not prove a relationship in meaning at the extemai referential level (swh as narrative

or emotional), or at the interna1 referentiai level of formal relationships between the

surface structures of the text/composition. Such relationships may be in effect a series of

observations or analogous cornparisons in which the writer creates relationships

according to h i s k response, rather than based an absolute criteria of cornparison. White

(Scher, 1992) advises critics to define their tenns: commenting on R Solie's feminist

interpretation of Schumann's Frauenliebe und -Lebert, White notes:

1 have no quarrel with Solie's analysis of the musical content of Schumann's songs, although 1 would Iike to have it documented that major always denotes positive and minor negative or at I t m t was presumed to have been apprehendible as such at the time Schumann composed tbis piece. (303)

Solie's anaIysis of the interrelationship between the musical and textual settings

equates Traum (dream) to Pickery, the "trickiness" ernphasized by the setting of T r a m

on a diminished seventh chord. '%y a diminished seventh?'continues White, "What

does a diminished seventh do? Does it subvert the force of the assertion and its possible

tnith ..." (304). For Sotie it does, But it is not estabfished that this acoustic perception on Solie's part, based on Western conceptions of estabLished tonal intervais, is shared by a

For examplc, sec Conc's analysis of Scbubeds Song, Der Erlk6nig(Sonnd andPoeny, 1956), in which Caae explores xhe composer's transformation of a stmphk poctic fonn hto a through-composed m g ; or Kramcr's discussion of Schumann's sctting of a Heme poem in the Dichterfiebe, in which b e r suggests that by spueezing this Romantic pods tomat of ernotionai anguish into melodic Lines of d mtcrvaiic differenccs, b e cornposer"cfamp~~' the pam and succceds m actually heightening the tension (1984: 146). Conc (1956), Schwadron (Ml), and Knrma(t984) aii provide an aaalysis ofthe poetico=musical htCtactioasmDer~ig.

Analogous comparisons have permitted the specif~c technical terms of one art form

to be applied to the other, and music and language share a vocabulary which has

permitted an acoustic situation in music or singing to be redefined as a reflection of the

thought-content of the text. The risk is that the terms, once redefhed according to the

poet's or the cesearcher's interests, then [ose the identifjhg features which detemiined

their original meaning. For example, in her article "Tone in the poems of Paul Valéry"

(1970), Noulet equates tone to the central idea of the poem, to the emotionai content of

the text, to the tone of the voice as it rises and falls in performance, and to the intensities

and rhythmic "movemenf' of the ideas - %efortissimo rendering on the same note of the word of the supreme movement ...", the moderato of the "grophg investigation" (45-46). Tone in musical terms describes a sound of definite pitch and vibration, but Noulet, using

Rimbaud's image, "la pensée chantt?e9' (41),7 redefines tone, not as a manifestation of

sound, but as the musicalization of thought. Noulet bas appropriated musical vocabulary,

which she now uses to study poetry fiom its own musical point of view rather than in

tems of absolute musicality.

Following Symboiist poetics, Valéry fiequently appiied terms such as timbre,

intonation, resonance, melody, voice, and harrnony to describe the "musicality" of the

poetic text. However, Valdry defined and redefined his terms constantly within the wider

perspective of bis continuou search to uaderstand the aesthetics of poetic language, and

6 White points out that i€UIvcstigati*ons of music as a conveyot of mcaning arc underiaken on music which contains no tcxt, tùe researcha wiil be forccd to idenri@ "...an equivdenf of a verbal content. ..m musical (or musieolo~d) temis alonc" (292). Th& is, music is behg descrihi with words, but language so fiir cannot be descriaed ushg only musical "language".

7 Rimbaud wrote in a îetiu to Paul Demcny, 15, 1871: ' U s romantiques, qui prouvent si bien que la chanson est si peu souvent l'awn, c'est-idire la pensée chantée et comprise du chaatcur?" (Rimbaud, 1984: 201)

he reaiized that Ms descsiptions were not proof, but only steps in a process leading to a

deeper comprehension of poetic art.

Thus, anaiogous descriptions may underline similarities between poetry and music

and pique the imagination. But if the anaiogy is accepted as proof, the poetic text,

formerly qualified with protective parentheses as "musical", becomes metaphorically

musical, and, as Phillips suggests, the researcher can then build an argument for poetic

musicality based an his or her own musical definitions and set aside the identifying

characteristics which define music.

2.2 Poeticians and the Musical Test,

Scholarly interest has focused on the concept of Voice, inspired in some part by

Paul Zumthor's introduction of the concept of mouvance in medieval troubadour poetry.

Zumthor considemi that the text, through the constantly modifjing conditions of live

performance, was constantly recreated. Thus, every performance represented an authentic

version of the text. Zumthor opened a discussion on the nature of sung text,g and

extended the meaning of voice to a more global context of the inner beauty of Voice, an

inner monance or consciousness unique to every human being, as weli as its outward

physical manifestation, which is the speaking, singing voice.

Val&yYs interest in the couple Voicelvoice and his application of the nature of voice

to poetry has provided a ready field of investigation for scho1ars.g Christine Crow (Pm1

Valéry and the Poetry of Voice, 1982), and Brian Stimpson (Paul Valéry and Music,

1984), two works of interest to this study, have devoted much of theu research to the

8 Sec fmochrciion d /upocO,rè o d e (1983) and Per/ormance, réception, lecture (1990).

W i i ceferencc to Valdryan nlationships of somd and formai struchin, sct Delas and Fiiolet (1973), Gauthicr (W4a and 1974b), Guiraud (1953). Lawlcr(1959,1963), Morier (l974), and Scott (1980,1998). For Valéry and music, sec Clow (1982), Hyticr (l953), Lamnti (l973,1974), and Stimpson (1984).

interpretation of the voice in tenns of Vaiéryan philosophy.1° 1 will discuss Valéry's own

conceptions of music in the latter-half of this chapter, but my purpose in mentionhg this

research is to undedine the scholars' interpetive approach, which is to define the poetic

nature of Voice rather than the technical nature of voice. Both Stimpson and Crow present

sensitive and thorough interpretations of Valéry's use of sound, relating Valéry's musical

approaches directiy to the phonetic content of the poetic line (melody, rhythm, harmony,

recitative, "la musique verbale "), but the discussion aiways expands into the deeper

implications of the presence of an inner-voice which lies within the human

consciousness, and is awakened by the semantic and sound associations created by the

pet."

These sound and semantic associations in the context of poetic singing were

previously expIored by Pierre Fortassier (1973), who linked the inner musical voice to its

realization in poetic recitation (which he defined as lying haifway between speech and

song). Fortassier relates his discussion of pets' sound arrangements to the use of "échos

sonores" (37) in which vowel- and consonant-sound combinations of key words have

been planted throughout the text, thus subliminally preparing the ear for their arrival. He

claims that if the saunds are there, and the ear perceives the arrangement - "l'orchestration de leurs sonorités" (43) - the text is musical, This seems to me to be an analogical conclusion rather than a precise identification based on musical characteistics.

However Fortassier touches, if ody briefly, on a techoicai aspect of singing that is

relevant to this discussion, "ia dude'', which he associates with the slower tempo of

Io Hytier's woi i aiso contains much valuable information about Valdry's intcrpretation of the singiag tex$ but is less concenicd wiîh the production of a d singing sound

The degm to which somd and sense are connected is not part of my discussion. Do sounds acnialize meaniug, or do they becorne meaningfid through our association wiîh their use in semantic tenns tbat have meaning for us?

poetic recitation. "Observons seulement que le son, pour s'établir, exige une certaine

durde: c'est encore plus sensible quand intervient la musique, mais déjà le vers qui

chante, ou le mot qui chante dans le vers, tend ii ralentir le débit" (3). This is interesting

because Fortassier recognizes the nature of sound delivery itseif. It is tnie that a sung

musical text can be greatly extended in duration; for example, in the aria "Rejoice

greatly" from Handel's Messiah, the vowel of goice is maintained for fourteen quarter-

note beats, and the sequence occupies 18 centimeters on the printed page of the Novello

edition. By identifjing musical sound in terms of time duration, which is measurable,

Fortassier offers a concrete basis for investigation of a poetic text Ui terms of musicality.

That is, does the text itself in some way permit the tempo of oral delivery to be slowed?

Tsur also offers a point of view which includes a specific reference to the technical

nature of musical sound production. Tsur explains that acousticdy, continuous and

periodic speech sounds are kquentiy perceived as beautifùl(1992: ix), and that in the

poetic context "...the poem's musical nature is enhanced by the fact that the dominant

speech sounds in the stanza are, like the sounds of music, continuous and periodic"

(74).[2 Tsur, üke Fortassier, thus links musical and poetic sounds at the level of their

physical realization in performance, at the technicd sound production level, as it were.

Tsur's approach also suggests that the sounds of the text can be examined for their

continuous and periodic propezties, although the term contirnous requires carefùl

dennition. Does the continuousness Iie in the listenerfs perception of repetitive sound

occunences, vocalic and/or consonantal, or in hisRier awareness of a continuous flow of

sound? In fact, how can continuity in a poetic line be evduated as more continuous than

rhat of another iine?

12 Tsur is investigating cognitive and psyhandytic aPpcas of the expmsive capacity of sound patterns.

13

2.2.1 The Enphonious Te*. Ease of Reception or Ease of Transmission.

Researchers have applied the term euphony (hm the Greek "sweet-voiced,

musicai") to their investigations of what Gauthier calls "l'architecture sonore" of the

poetic construction (1974b: 7). Euphoniousness does not seek to describe poetic writing

in terms of musical tone, or as an actual musical state, but rather to reflect a perception of

pleasure which the listener discovers in hearing a pleasing arrangement of poetic sound,

comparable to the same pleasure enjoyed when tistening to music. Gauthier defines

euphony as "...l'étude des phonhies d'un poéme, ... dans leur organisation et arrangement mutuel, et en liaison avec les cadres traditionnels de la prosodie, de la

métrique et de la versification" (1974b: 1 O). His review of twentieth-century descriptions

of sound expressivityl3 suggests tbat g e n d y , in the search for poetic euphoniousness,

theorists proceed by identwng the munds in the poetic verseline according to

articulatory or acoustic similarities, thus uncovering sound patterns which through their

repetition and rhythmic arrangements offer a '%armony" of sound that the listener can

perceive. Gauthier outlines many forms of sound patterns whose timbres echo or repiy to

one another at various metrical and stress points in the verseline; for example he traces

patterns of same consonant- or vowel-groupings which occur two, three, four, and five-

l3 Becq de Fouqui&res (1879) ibeorizes that the sound components of a keyword generatc M e r sound and semantic choices (mot gdnérateur d'hmnonie). Hytier (1923) focuses on the acoustic strength of the chyme sound components, and their echos in the verseline. Guiraud (1953) defiaes the systematic groupings of sounds as tonali& and the relationship between concomitant phonemes as modulation. The Russian Formaüsts investi*gate the sound repetiiions hughout the paaic verseline but reject the Symboiists' vision of phonemes as carriers of emotional qualities. (Herc, Gauthier is citing Delbouilley P&e et sonorités, 1961). Jakobson (1971) suggtsts that the npctition of the phonetic components cfeates a subliminal undeqmning of the semantic content to create a parblership of sound and sense working in parailel balance. Saussure expaads the notion of subliminal underpinnings to a starch in Latin texts for diphones and triphones, which he calls hypogrummes- J.P. Chausserie La@e (1971) views euphony as the sum of the gnatest number of various patterns of sound pupings in the entire verseline. Finally, Gauthier cevicws Grammont's thtory of "la m ~ q u e des vws", in whidi Grammont defmes euphony as îhe study of conmsting vowel timbres (écImanies/sombm, a@udiJ/cIuhs) and their organhtion into p u p s of twos or threes, or multiples oftwos andthms (1954, origidy pubLished iu 1904).

times within a single verselh. But Gauthier insists that the vowel and consonant

arrangements should be studied separrttely. He believes that the two categories of sound

are perceived differently by the listener, consonants are distinguished by theu place of

articulation, and vowels are perceived by their timbre (1974b: 46), and that ultimately the

euphonious effect must be evaluated by its reception rather than by a description of the

sounds' articulations -"...l'expérience prouve, dans ce domaine, qu'il est essentiel de

rester prudent et attentif aux identitis acoustiques (et non articulatoires)" (1974b: 85).

Bishop suggests that euphouiousness is "...a positive correlation between lingual

ease and aura1 pleasure" (1 985: 344). This links the perception of 'Lpleasurable" sound to

its ease of transmission as wefl as to its ease of reception. Put differently, the ease with

which the speaker's tongue can move h m sound to sound will contribute to the listener's

perception of agreeable continuity. Thus Bishop equates euphoniousness with the

mechanical process of articulating sounds, and he proposes a point system of evaluation

based on the identification of the poetic sounds (through repetition), the prominify of

sounds with neighbouring articulations, and the progression of vowels and consonants as

they "succeed each other in the poetic line ..." (353). Bishop, like Gauthier, evaluates consonant and vocalic combinations separately, but his system stresses aflow of sound.

He describes articulations which intemipt the =und transmission, such as clusters of

unvoiced plosives, as "harsh", citing Rudrauf s cornments on the inelasticity of unvoiced

occlusives pl, b] and [t] (354). Bishop's system for an euphonious product includes the

suggestion that these obstructive sounds must be contained in a "buffer zone", and should

be separated h m one another with "softer" sounds (354), uniess the stops can be placed

in pattern of aiiiterative repetition at dependable rhythmic sires points.

There are two points which 1 wish to discuss as a result of these arguments. The

hrst is that them is a tendency in these appmaches to suggest that the production and

transmission of the sound itselfis a fait accompli, and andt it is the listener's ear which

detemines the success of the euphoniousness.~4 However, just as various individuals of

an audience will have ciifferhg opinions of a musicai performance, defîning arrangements

, of sounds as "harmoniousY' based on the individual's abiiity to perceive the sounds, that is

the acoustic reception, adds as many parameters as there are listeners. Secondly, if the

listener perceives an euphonious arrangement of somd, it is because the somd has been

transmitted to the ear. In fact, the terms of the production of this sound have rarely, if

ever, been examined, let done defined in musical or singhg terms.

Whiie Gauthier's interest lies in the functional possibilities of sound arrangement,

he compares his analysis of the euphonious sound system to the musician's interest in

discovering the formai structure of the composition (1974b: 7), a discussion of the

"melodyyy of form as it were.15 He suggests that the= are two kinds of amateur musicians,

those who listen to music and those who practise the art, and that the reai musicality for

the musician lies in the discovery of the relationships within the musicai form. It seems

that Gauthier wishes to j a hiS approach to fimctional euphoniousness by compariag it

to music, which is unnecessary. His investigation of the possibilites of euphonious sound

within a fiinctionai encadrement is perfectly legitimate without justification at the

musical level. Moreover, while he seeks a rapport with the musician's approach at the

l4 Bishop suggests, somewhat dubiousiy, that "...a high frequency of sibiiants ... shocks the French ear even more than that of an Anglophone"(l975: 20). A conccnü'ation of the sound [s] in a Iiae of verse is an unlikety source of "shock" for French tisteners.

l5 Gauthier bases his sîudy of the phonetic structure on acoustic identification rather than phonemic binary opposition. He pnfers to avoid articulatory criteria as this approach risks a ntum to the biaary theory of understandkg thtough opposition rather than thmugh timbre. He links pemptual effdveness, by the üstening ear, of the sounds in the text to their place in the otganization of meter, accentuai groups, and rhythmic pattern of timbre. Gauthier points out that nseatchers tcad to identify groups of sou& as "melodious" or "modulating", but that identifymg sounds in tenns of succession or contrast does not really explain euphoniousness in tmns of fbction. Rather tbau pimply notmg simüar contrastiag patterns of sound, Gauthier identifies equivaIent p u p s (groupes semblables) of repeated timbres and relates the groups ta thcir functional role in the verseline. "Ce n'est pas seulcmcnt parce que R et L sont deux liquides qu'ils se trouvent en rapport, mais parce que, ridns ce wrs, iis se trouvent, riom ckoqtdegroupe, occuper un poste €gaiement Libre, ils peuvcntfo)~~tionnrr memble" (1974b: 64).

f o d level, Gauthier leaves uaacknowledged the performing musician's primary goal,

which is the production of paiodic sound in a wntinuous rhythmic flow guided by the

the composer's instnictions. While the musician is aware of the formai structure, it is the

transformation of fonn-on-paper into sound, using dl the technical ski11 at his or her

disposai, that is the musician's immediate goai. Gauthier and others explore

euphoniomess in terms of ease of reception, but they seem to skirt the issue of looking

at terms which define absolute musicality, whik at the same tirne introducing

cornparisons with music. However, Gautbier's comments about the musician's approach

did draw my attention to the musician's and the singer's perception of music production,

and Bishop's definition of lingual ease suggested that the oral preparation of the text's

delivery must consider the production of the sounds thernselves and the muscuiar act of

joining the sounds together.

Some points emerge fiom this review which offer specific musical feanires: that is,

periodicity (a quaiity of vocalic sound), continuity (a flow of vocalic and consonant

sound), and the concept of the extension of the sound's duration. These criteria must be

de- more carefûlly; first by examining c k t e r i s t i c s specific to music and singing,

and then by reviewing the preparation of the performing voice in tenns of sound

production aud sound extension.

23 The Musical Production of Sound.

2.3.1 Music and Singing: the Production of Periodic, Continuous Tone.

Western conceptions of the acoustic science of music define its organization as the

arrangemea of tones into units of time duration which are given exact values. Singing is

a physicai process in which the human voice combines musicai tone with verbal

Iaaguage. Singing is the musical act of speaking, using an enlarged body space (enlarged

lung cavity, enlarged pharynx), and engagement of the sinus cavities to create an intense

state of sound resonance. Both music and singing rely on the production of pdodic tone,

making song a form of music. But whereas sounds and rhythm are the comrnon formal

elements shared by poetry and music, common elements shared by singing and poetry can

only be established on the basis of the avaiiability of periodic tone, which in language is

principaily produced with the articulation of the vowels.i6

Vowels are complex periodic tones, characterized as Ladefoged describes them,

'hot by one fiequency each but by a combination of fiequencies" (1996: 102).17

Ladefoged identifies these frequencies asformanfs or "resonant fiequencies" (1 3O),

which he defines as "modes of vibration [whose) peaks in the spectra of vowels ... correspond to the basic fiequencies of the vibrations of the air in the vocal tract" (94).

The propet placement of the lips and tongue for vowel articulation determines the shape

of the resonators, which in turn determines the fkquency of the first and second fermants,

These frequencies, in turn, are responsible for the perceived identity (or timbre) of the

vowel. Once the articulators are in place for the correct pronunciation of the vowel, and

its formant frequencies subsequently established in an optimal coordination, the

information about the vowel's q d i t y cm be sustained on the airstream indefiaitely. As a

result, the vowels have great carrying potential and audibility.

Theoretically, this wouid limita discussion of the singing properties of poetic text

to an examination of its vocalic content if the poem is to be considered as a manifestation

of t ue musical sound. However, musical sound m u t be continuous and able to be

extended in duration. Why not examine the sound content of the poem hom these points

of view as well, bearing in mind tbat the singing quaiities of a poetic text will be

l6 And to a lesser extent consonants withptiah, îhe n a d consonmts [ml and [a], and the liquid consomts [RI and [l]. The articulatory pmperties of French sounds an summanZed in 2.323. 17 Ladefoged suggwts that in musical terau, cach vowel is charact#wd by iîs own chord, tapidly rqeated, of fkquencies (1996: la).

delivered in a spoken performance? What does the voice itseifrequke h m a text to

facilitate the delivery of continuous and extendible sound? Understanding the preparation

of the pedorming voice allows us to approach the analysis of a "singingyy text from the

point of view of the sound deliverer, whose voice is trained to produce sound and deliver

meaning. A closer examination of the preparation of the performing voice may yield

further bases for cornparison.

2.33 The Performing Voice: Sound Projection and Sound Extension.

Singing and the theatncal delivery of text dSer fiom ordinary speaking according

to the nature of the different patterns of control which the individual exercises over the

voice source and the shape and sue of the vocal tract (Baer, Bell-Berti, and Rubin,

1979: SI), which is essentially a resonator tube consisting of the pharynx, the mouth, and

sometimes the nose (Miller, 1986: 48). Breath must be transformed into sound, and

endowed with a greater resonance and amplitude to ensure that the sound projected into

the performance space is audible to the listeners. Mastery over the exhdation of breath

allows îhe petformer to extend the duration of the souad, and subsequently to prepare the

rhythmic variations of long and short notes (in singing), long and short syllables (in

speaking), and, by extension, long and shoa phrases.

2e32.1 The Singer's Voice and Sound Projection.

The mechanisrn of singing is directed towards initiating and maintainhg a steady,

continuous vibration of the vocal folds for much longer tirne-durations than is normal in

speaking, which is about 4 seconds for the cycle of inspiiration-exphtion (Milier,

1986: 20). The k a t h moves fiom an area of sub-giottal pressure in the lungs through the

glottai slit into an area of lower air pressure (supraglottal pressure) in the pharynx. In

order to maintain regular sound patterns for an extended duration, d e c t e d by the

constant alternations in air pressures, the singer learns to balance the various muscuiar

components of the process.

Technical skill in singing is largely dependent on the singer's ability to achieve consistently that fine coordination of airfiow and phonation ... which is determined by cooperation among the muscles of the larynx and the chest wall, and diaphragmatic contraction, a dynamic balancing between subglottic pressure and vocal-fold resistance, (Miller, 1986: 23)

The production of vocal sound is supported by a controlled colurnn of air and a

steady sub-giottal pressure, which the singer maintains using the muscles of the lung

cavity, the lower back, and the diaphragm. The steady and extended exhalation of the

breath therefore maintains the continuity of sound and becomes the second characteristic,

in addition to the production of periodic tone, which traditionally distinguishes singing

fiom speech in Western musical terms. Valéry, as will be seen, was well aware of the

importance of the breathing mechanism to sound production.

With the establishment of a dependable breathiag apparatus, the next task for the

singer is the improvement of the resonant sound. The larynx, pharynx, nasal passages and

varying articulatory configurations of the buccal cavity ail serve as continually adjustable

resonant spaces. Moreover, when the pharynx is expanded in width - yawning provides the physiological sensation of a widened pharynx - this additional resonant space will contribute to the production of the singer 'sformmf which Sundberg describes as a "shiny

sound" radiating fiom the front of the mouth and e n d g a more forward projection.18

The vibratory sensations of the tesonances of this shiny sound, collecting at the fiont of

the mouth (Miller, 1986: 85) are the sensations which the singer must l e m to ident*

and maintain.

The rqsonant spaces of the vocal tract are constantiy reshaped by the articulations of

l8 "ifpharynx width is adjustcd and becomes considerably wider than the ma of the entrauce to the larynx tube, the third, fourth and (probably) fifth fomiants ciustct and dtimately gain m amplitude" (Sundberg, 198t: 13).

the vowels and consonants. In their continuous flow to extremes of high and low pitches,

singers must modifv the timbre of the vowel articulations in order to establish what

Miller, an acknowledged expert in the field, c d s "a desirable balance between low and

high harrnonic partials" (1986: 156). Miller means that at higher singing pitches, which

normally are not used in speaking, the fùndamentai fiequency may be higher than that

required to produce a given vowel formant. Consequently, the harmonic reinforcement

responsible for the production of the formant (which in turn determines the vowel's

perceived identity) can no longer be achieved, Miller states that in these situations, the

singer must establish a compromise between a loss of vowel timbre and the maintainance

of an optimal resonant balance between the fundamental and its harmonic overtones

(1986: 157). He recommends h t the singer adjust to the more relaxed articulatory

features of [a] and [a], which he describes as "central modifjhg vowel[s]" (157), to

deliver the articulation of a high vowel such as [il, for example, on a high note. The

singer lowers the tongue and opens the mouth to articulate a more neutral version of the

vowel, neutral in the sense that the tongue moves to a more central position in the mouth,

and the lips are neither completely rounded nor completely spread.

Such articulations also relieve the singer of muscular tongue movements which may

cause the body, and particularly the b a t , to tense and thus constrict the open air

column. As the pitch goes up, the vocal cords are stretched (Ladefoged, 1982: 226), and,

physicaiiy, the body tightens as the singing voice strains to articuiate an [il on a high B,

for example, with the tongue pushed high up on the palate. By chooshg a more neutrai

articulatory configuration, the singer encourages the body to relax. Of course, in spoken

performance, the actor normaiiy does not establish the wider range of pitches which may

be present in a song and does not need to adjust the vowel articulations accordingly. But

what is interesthg is that lower articulations like [a] and [a] may be usefui to the speaker

as well as the singer for the senfie of ease which they impart to the artist's ' W y

relaxation antemaen in performance.

"Consonants", continues Miller, ''need not be considered unwelcome intniders that

impede good vocalization" (1986: 78). MiIles's humorous comment is an allusion to the

interruption to the breath flow which the articulation of a consonant involves, either by

stopping the breath with a [pl or [b], for example, or constricthg the breath with a

continuant [s] or [z]. Theatre coaches Bausson and Lavallie liken the articulatory

configurations to a set of moulds or casting shapes. 'Z'ariiculation n'est que la

manipulation du courant de vibrations large, libre et bien appuyé. Les divers moules des

consonnes et des voyelles dans la bouche sculptent le courant de son sans l'interrompre"

(1997: 52). Both comments underline the singer's and the actor's preoccupation with

maintainhg a continuous flow of air at a steady pressure and reducing intemptions to a

minimum.

However, some consonants enable good vocal tone production, in particda the

nasal consonant [ml. Vocalizing on a prolonged [ml is particularly helpful for the

establishment of resonance, forward sound placement and sound projection (Miller, 1986;

Westemian Gregg, 1996). Articulation of the labial [ml leaves the resonant cavities of the

mouth and pharynx completely open and unimpeded by the tongue, which lies flat and

relaxed.19 [ml is articulated with a closing and releasing of the lips, but if the lips remain

closed and the aidow is directed through the nasal cavities, the singer cm sustain its

- -

I9 Articulation of the othcr intra-buccal nasal consomts "sculpts" the mouth monances more resîrictively. To produce an [n], îhe toque tip is plactd on the alveolar ridge, cnating a division in the resonating buccal cavity; the production of the palatal nasal b] braccs the toque's blade against the bard @te, effectively restnctiog îhe rclease of air through the mouth cavity.

For thc p a h i nasal [DI, the back of the twguc mtets the hard plate, and diver& the entire airsiream through the nasal cavitics. Howem, îbe articulations of [n], [Ji1 and Ln] teduce the mouth cavity as a resonatiag space, vocalizing on these n a d consonants crrates high fornard sensations in the singer's head and nose or behind the cycs, and their Upefulaess in f& nsonancc balmckg is of great value (Miüer, 1986: 84-88).

articulation by using the sinus passages as resonators to produce extra vibrations.

Miller dso recommends working with the continuants [VI [fl [z] and [s], noting that 'ln singing, it is significant that in executing [VI and [z], and their voiceless mates [f] and [s], the tongue need not move fiom its acoustic, at rest position" (1986: 95-96).

Milier promotes vocalization on [v] as weli for the value of the vibratory sensations

which its articulation produces at the fiont of the face. For almost the same reason, the

labial stop p] also receives Miiîer's attention, because while the breath is temporarily stopped before the sound explodes outwards, the production of [b] at the fkont of the

mouth in physiological terms creates an open pharyngeal-buccal resonant space, and

psychologicaily, Miller believes, offers the singer the reassurance that the sound is

projecting forward (97). Thus the fonvard articulations of a language sound systern serve

as usefiil tools in the development of projectable singing sound, whîie those articulations

in which the tongue remains as close as possible to its "at rest" position encourage the

singer to maintain a steady airstream flow and experience the resonances without

additional articulatory tension.

We can imagine the air in the singer's body feedhg smoothly through the narrow

opening of the vocal folds at a steady pressure, and emerging as wirations which pas

through the widened pharynx and mouth passages. The movements of the tongue, lips and

jaw continualIy reshape the vibrations into recognizable sound units which are dropped

onto the flowing airstream and projected one by one forward into the atmosphere. The

quaiity of the everyday speaking voice has been enriched by the correlation of

fundamental and formant fiequencies in the vowel articulations. Whatever the

articulations may be, the sound has acquired a singing quality, which seeks to flow

mintemrpredly in order to maintain a dynamic balance of muscular energy and air

pres--

23.2.2 The Actor's Voice and Sound Continuity.

Like the singer, the actor prepares the voice to pmject and ampli& learning to

extend and control the breath flow, and developing the resonant chambers of the body.

The training of the voice is the most tirne-consuming and difficult of aU our disciplines. It includes the mechanisrn of breathing and resonance, voie placement, articulation, and diction, purity of speech, and, hally, singing - al1 this with a view to developing a vocal quality in the actor that is clear, rhythmic, and musical. (Withers-Wilson, 1993: 22)2*

The actor may devote more time than the singer to exploring the resonances in

various areas of the body, including the chest cavity, using humming exercises to feel the

tesonant spaces and singing exercises to understand the durational possibilities and tonal

amplitude which the vowel provides (Bausson et Lavallée, 1997: 40; Berry, 1993b: 78;

Rodenbutg, 1993: 94). But, unlike the singer who can sustain a single vowel for an entire

musical phrase, actors do exercises for consonants to develop what Berry, the Voice

Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, calls their muscularity (1993a: 28), and they

leam to balance the articulations of the vowels with those of the consonants.

It is quite cornmon to h d that the tone for the consonant is forward, and back or medial for the vowel. The adjustment that sometirnes has to be made is very subtle and takes time but it is good to work the vowel and consonant exercises together so that they never become separate in feeling ancl you can continuaiiy balance them in relation to each other. (1 993b: 51)

Berry's comment is instructive; she indicates that the performer should not separate

the vowel and consonant articulations as theonsts of euphoniousness have done, but

rather should concentrate on linking their resonances together. This suggests that the

artist, through ski11 and practise, leanis to understand the resonant connection of sound to

sound, and it also suggests that the vocal techniques which join sounds together will

z0 Withers-Wilson is ciîing Michel Saint-Denis, whose theatricai conmiutions are descnid by John Houseman in Houscmads autobiography F W Dress (1983).

contribute to the continuity of the finished produdl

Thw, the preparation of the singer's and the actor's voice will ciiflier in the artists'

conception of resonance, because, while the singer is concemed aimost exclusively with

the production and extension ofperiodic tones, principally the vowels, the actor must

prepare the resonances of the: non-periodic sounds of the text, that is, of the consonants,

with as much care as the periodic ones. The singer's voice moves fiom vowel duration to

vowel duration to create a fl ow of periodic tom, reducing consonant interruptions to a

minimum. But the actor's voice moves dong the linear sound-line, feeling the tond

contributions of dl the sounds as they comect to one another.

23.2.3 The Sounds: The Articulations of French Vowels and Consonants.

The preference for certain articulations which voice teachers and theatre coaches

observe suggests that tbe articulatory propexties of the vowels and consonants of a text

will have an important role to play in the preparation of the voice and of the text. We are

particularly concemed with the French sound system since this discussion will be

considering the sound content of Paul Valéry's Le Cimetière marin.

In French, vowels are descnbed as high, mid-high, mid-low and low, according to

the tongue's height in the mouth. They may be rounded or spread, detennined by the

2L It also raises the question of what constihites "üngual case" (Bishop, 1985: 354) for the performer as she moves h m sound to somd. One of Bishop's niteria in the definition of lingual case is that &ere should be fiw maximal leaps h high to low vowels and h m forward to back wwels (356). He means that if the vowels ofthe text are armged m such a way that the tongue's action in the deternination of apemire and place of articulation can be teduced to more gtaduril mowmwts, the ndting reduction in die artieulatory effort will yicld a more fiowiag imptcssion. It is possible that a reductiUCtion of large articulatory contrasts could yield a mon euphonious or a shgabk product. But it is impottant Co explore more compIcteIy which articulatory l e m quire the most effht before settling on a definition of lingual case; for example, is die articulatory effort ofmoving h m a hi@ h t m l to a high back vowel mon intcnsc than the movement nom a hi& &ont vowet to a low h n t vowel? For a singer, it appears that this is so, since we have seen that vocal pedagogues prefer artesculations with lower tongue positions when working on iiic development of a teIaxed dynamic muscular balance.

degree of lip-rounding. These positions are classinecl as aperture." The French hi&

vowels are [i y u], the mid-high vowels are [e 0 O], the mid-low vowels are [E œ e 31,

and the low vowels are [a a]. The vowels' urticulatory position is classified asforwurd

or bac4 according to w h e the greatest mass of the toque-body lies in the mouth. The

forwatd vowels are [i y e 0 E ce a] and the back vowels are [u O 3 a]. The neutral sound

[a], which in this study I will identify as the e muet, is the only French centrai vowel.

There are aiso four nasal vowels in French, the [É @ Ü 5],= which are distinguished

fiom the oral vowels by the expiration of the airstream through the nasal passages as well

as the mouth; that is by lowering the velum, the breath can be directed through both the

mouth and the nose, allowing the sound to resonate in the nasal cavities as well. Al1 of the

nasal vowels are mid-low or low vowels accordiig to their aperture; t and 8 are forward

in their articulatory position, and 6 and â are back vowels.

Consonants are described according to their manner of articulation, and theirplace

of articulation. The manner of articulation is firstly characterized by the degree of the

obstruction to the airstream flow. Whefi the airstream is modified by articulation - by a complete or an incomplete cbsure of the lips, for example, to produce a @] or a [v]

respectively, the speaker wili have the sensation of complete or of partial interruption of

the airstream, and the iistener the auditory impression of complete or of partial

22 For aperrwe, Engiish uses the am high, nid-high, nid-low and low, which describe the tongue's position; however thc French tams an f d e , semifermée, semi-ouverre, and ouverre (Carton, 1974: 62), which relate to the openkg action of the jaw. Moriarty quite rightly makes the point that if singers inte~ret a vowel as close4 they may instinctively "cIose", that is, tighten, the b a t , which will affect the relaxed release of sound which they arc trying Co achieve (1975: 9). While 1 agree with Moriarty, and d l continue to classify the vowel's apemue as high or low, it is tempting to use the tems open and chedas tbey are used so hquently, particdarly in singhg diction texts. This is probably because open remin& the monner to relax tbe jaw for the low arti*culations. Sec Cofnn, EnoUe, Smger, and DeIm (1982), Gnibb (1979), and Wall, Cddwe11, Gavilanes, and Allm (1990).

23 [&] is disappearing fbm the Fmch vowd system, as is [a], but these sotmds were part of Valéry's somd syst'='-

interruption of the sound. Secondly, manner of articulation distinguishes between the

presence or absence of vocal fold vibrations (the sound is voiced or voiceless),24 and

thirdly, between nasality and non-nasality, since the airsüeam can be deflected through

the nasal passages when the velum is lowered. Thus, a consonant can be described as a

stop or a continuant, as voiced or unvoiced, and as nasal or non-nasal.

Place of articulation defines the location of the obstruction or constriction of the

abmeam as the consonant is articulated. With the exception of the labial consonants, this

is prhcipally determined by the tongue's contact with various k e d articulators: the hard

and soft palate, the alveolar ridge, and the teeth. For example, the back of the tongue

pressed against the soft palate produces a [g] or a ml, although it is the voiced/unvoiced feature which further distinguishes these two sounds from each other. [dl and [t] are

pduced by pressing the tongue behind the upper fiont teeth. In another example of the

combination of the mouth's articulatory areas, [v] and [f], identified asfiicatives, result

when the upper-fiont teeth press against the bottom lip, and the air is released in a

continuous smam.

This raises the question of how the nasal consonants should be classified, since ihey

can be considered as stops or as continuants in the sense that the closing of the lips stops

the sound, but the airsûeam deflected through the nasal passages continues to flow and

maintain a resonant sound. Clearly, they are considered as continuants by those skilled in

the preparation of perfomiing voices. Therefore, in this study, the voiced continant group

will include the nasal continuants [m n pJ25, the liquids [RI and [II, the giides [w q j], and the voiced fricatives [V z 31. The unvoiced continuants are [f s 11. The voiced stops

are [b d g]; the unvoiced stops are [p t k].

*4 iu the case of vowel articulations, the vocal foi& an always viirating.

25 The phoneme [QI has k e n addcd to the French sound system since Valéry's the.

In terms of the continuity of breath, it is the distinction between continuauts and

stops which will be most weful ta this discussion, since continuity of airflow is criticai

for the maintenance of performing tone. Consequently, we may conclude that in the

investigation of a singing text, the manner of the consonants' articulation, which

describes the movement of the airsûeam, must be considered before the place of their

articulation.

In fact, French- and English-speaking actors leam to identifj consonants according

to a hierarchy of longest to shortest durations, determined firstly by their manner of

articulation. (Bausson and Lavallée, 1997; Berry, 1993b). Voiced continuants are longest,

followed by the unvoiced continuants, the voiced stops and finally the unvoiced stops, an

arrangement which places the continuity of air flow ahead of voicing or place of

articulation in importance and continues to relate the flow of the airstream to the

stretching of the voice.26

Analyzing this hierarchy of duration forms an essential part of the actor's training.

The length of the consonant is as crucial to the actor's preparation of the text as the

production of the vowels, because its durational balance with the vowel will permit the

actor to understand the weighr of each sound in the linear iine of the text's unfolding

delivery. B q concludes:

Now this weight and substance ... cornes precisely fiom the diBetent lengths of the vowels, ... and also h m the variable times the consonants need to fuliill their vibrations ..,, The tirne consonants take to speak varies according to whether they are unvoiced or voiced, plosive or continuant, and how maay there are! .... These are negotiable, but as you cm see, the interaction of length between vowels and consonauts is limitless, for the lengtà of the consonant affects the length of the vowel. (1993a: 29)

z6 This summary, organized accotdiig to the d e p of obstruction to the airsaeam, npnsents an overview of the relative d d d pmpties of consonant categories and not a cornparison of sound durations to thm of the same sounds in other languages.

The notion of the sound's weight is the b i s of îhe theatrical approach to the

preparation of the text, and Bausson and Lavallée (1997), Berry (1993% 1993b), Linklater

(1976), ad Rodenburg (1993) devote their W n g techniques to awakening the actor's

awmness of the physical sensation of sound-in-body. Meanings will natvally be

realized, not through "syllabic pressure" (Berry, 1993a:28), but when the speaker has

registered the impact of each sounà's production and released the somd's energy, guided,

as these authors suggest, by the length of t h e it takes to establish the sound, Berry

describes the process as "the physical movement of the thought" (1993a: 148). This

technique and its application to the r e b t i o n of sound-in-prformance recalls to mind

the Symbolists, and their conception of words as baving not only a representational d e

in the transmission of meaning, but a palpable physicai presence as well.

We can understand how carefidiy the performer must examine the text in order to

identiSl the durational capacities of the sounds and the importance of the semantic

content which the sounds convey. Each sylIable wiil be a combination of individual

sound durations, organized into metrical groupings of short and Iong syllable duations.

The longer durations (in general) will identify the matenal which is richest in phonemic

content,2? for exampIe, h a i rhyme syllables in stressed position. UnUe the singer, who

foilows a musical score, the actor is not provided with exact mathematical divisions of

time duration, and is a fiee agent with regard to the reaiization of the poem's durational

contrasts. As Berry says, "There are no d e s , only structures which have to be

recognized" (1993a: 178).

2.33.4 The Text: Syilable Structure and Sound Extension.

The syiiable stnu:nire can affect both vowel duration, whose periodic tone is the

27 What Cooper and Ross m their dimwion of conjimct ordaPlg caU "longer remnant nuclei" (1975: 71)-

29

primary characteristic of singing, and continuity of sound, which is detennined by the

manner of the consonants' articulation.

The vowel in a syiiable may be sûessed (accentuée) or unstressed (inaccentuée),

depending on the syllable's place in the word. The thai syllable of the word is the

stressable (or tonic) syllable in French, and it is a feature of the language that a stressed

syiiable is, in generai, twice as long as an unstressed syllable (Léon, 1996: 107). A m e r

distinction of potential for stress (and increased duration) is made between stressed and

destressed (or haif-stressed / demi-accentuée) syliables, according to the tonic syllable's

place in the syntactical unit, which is described as a rhythmic grouping.28. Léon, in an

earlier work (1966: 107), notes that all vowels occurcing in stressable position (stressed or

half-stressed) are longer in duration than unstressed vowels, which implies that the

greater duration of the syllable is related to the greater duration of its vowel. In any case,

whatever the durational potential of each of the phonetic components of the syllable, it

must be assumed that the vocalic material of al1 süessable syllables in French will be

longer than that of unstressed syiiables.

In addition to its stressed status in the word, the vowel's capacity to be extended in

duration may be influenced by the syllable structure, which is described as open when it

ends in a vowel, and closed when it ends in a consonant. An open syliable leaves the

vowel unblocked, and the sound can then resonate fieely on the breath for as long as the

performer chooses, since the aimûeam is not interrupted by the articulation of a

coIIS0nant.

The closure of a syllable, whose stnicturai title descn'bes the effect on the continuity

of sound (th& breath "closes" with the W consonant's articulation), thteatens the

28. The naturc of the rhythmic groupiag will be hrtkr discussed in Cbapcet 4.

30

duration of its tonic vowel. However, the phonetic nature of the consonant that closes the

syllable and of the vowel itself can contribute to the lengthenhg of the syllable's duration

even in these closed conditions.

Linguistic studies have established that in spoken French, specific consonants

closing a stressable syllable will influence the duration of any preceding vowel. These

lengthening consonant^^^ [RI, [VI [z], [3], and the combination [ml, are aU voiced continuants. As well, when the oral vowels [a], [O], and [a], and aU the nasal vowels [El,

[&], [q, and [5] occur in a stressed or destressed closed syllable, they can be lengthened

in duration, regardless of the identity of the following closing consonant. Consequently

these vowels are identified as lengthening vowels.30

ui fact, Delattre's work on the duration of French nasal vowels proves that French

nasal vowels are always longer than their oral counterparts in aZZ positions, stressed,

destressed, or unstressed.

On a pu constater que les voyeles nasales dans toutes les positions [syiiabes fermées accentuées, syllabes ouvertes accentuées, syllabes fermées inaccentuées et syllabes ouvertes inaccentuées] étaient plus longues que les voyeles orales correspondantes ,...La différence moyenne en= les nasales et les ordes était dans l'ordre de l,42: 1. (198 1 : 17)

Delattre and Monnot found that the durational differences between nasal vowels

and their oral counterparts were greatest in closed unaccented syllables and siightest in

open accent& syllables (198 1 : 17). This impiies that al1 the nasal vowels of a text have

the phonetic potential to add durational length to its oral delivery, regardless of the

29 AIkmgemt îs the tm applied to the extended durational capacity of these pampamcular French consonants and vowels. 1 have aanslatcd allongeunt as lengthening. See Ltoa, 1966: 21. 3O 1 will contiaue to identifj. thcsc sounds as lengrhening voweis and lengfkning consonants, despite the potentiai ambigu@. in fàcî, although they are su-named because thcy lengthen the preceding vowet's duration, ttie French lengrhening consonants are themsclvcs "lengthuiable" because they are contmuants. On the other hand, the lengrhening voweIs are in themselvcs leogthenable, but they do not exert a 1-g eûèct on the mm& arod them.

syllable's stressable status and open or closed structure.

Phonemic vocalic durational distinctions can also be made between vowels whose

grapheme-correlates contain a circumflex diacritic and those vowels unmarked by the

circumfiex. The longer vowel of maître [ m c t R] as opposed to that of mètre [mg t ~ ] is

the feature which differentiates the sense of the two words (master/meter), although the

distinction is disappearing in spoken French. However, French theatre technique, which

stresses the durational capacity of the lengthening vowels and lengthening consonants,

continues to observe these durational distinctions as wel! (Bausson and Lavallée, 1997:

60-64).

If the syllable (in French) is closed with a speciiic lengthening consonant such as

[RI or contains a lengthening vowel, the trained voice is alected to the possibility of extending the musical tone of the preceding vowel. if the syllable ends in a continuant

rather than a stopped articulation, its duration may be extended as well by extension of

the consonant itself, a more singable situation in ternis of aitstteam continuity. Thus, by

the choice of final consonants in closed syllables, a p e t can encourage both the duration

of the vocalic periodic tone and the continuity of sound, and in this light, Valéry's use of

sound in the closed-syiiable süucture of Le Cimetière marin can be examined.

2.4 Paul Valéry and the Singing Text.

It is tirne to hear Valdry's own voice; his analysis of the poetic mérier and its

associations witb the singing voice. For Valdry, poetry is an extension of the inner

musicality of the human spirit, and out of bis passion to undetstand poetry's unique status

in the oral world ultimately emerges his formula that "musique xpoésie = chant" (cited

by Stimpson, 1984: 14-15).

2.4.1 Valéry and the Inner Voice.

Et cependant c'est 1 'Maire du poète de nous donner la sensation de l'union intime

entre la parole et 1 'esprit. ((E.1: 1333)

To understand Valéry's musical ideas, we must begin to grasp the Valéryan

phiiosophy which always operates simultaneously at hvo levels of construction and

thought; that i