David W. Fenton wrote
On 1 Apr 2006 at 0:05, Robert C L Watson wrote:
And their origins are G&S patter
songs and Noel Coward.
They are both words spoken rhythmically
to musical accompaniment, where the delivery may have definite pitch
contours at times and less definite at others.
Not wishing to ignite any flames here, but I have been through all my G&S
scores and, without exception, all the patter songs have a written note for
each syllable. What's more, in my (amateur) experience, the songs are
always sung (pretty quickly, that's true), but never spoken. In the Major
General's song the spoken words "lot of news, lot of news" etc, are actually
not written in the score, just a grand fermata, so that may have been a
later development. But of course, traditions may be different where you
are.
Whenever the "speaking" of songs instead of singing them is the topic, I'm
always reminded of Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins in the London stage
production of My Fair Lady. He had a wonderful speaking voice, but you get
the definite impression he couldn't sing a note.
Peter
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