[Magdalen] Christmas Eve..

[Scott Knitter]

I think the choir of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco--a very
English-style choir especially at Choral Evensong--achieves a good
medium, where the r's are mitigated but they don't adopt a UK
pronunciation wholesale.

The choir director at my mom's suburban RC church takes the approach
of asking his singers to use UK-type r's, but the effect isn't phony
because enough people forget or refuse that it comes out somewhere in
the middle. :) And of course for Latin, a flipped rather than rhotic r
is best. My mom emailed me to ask how to pronounce "terra," as she was
worried she wouldn't be able to "roll the r's." I told her no
rolling...just say "tedda."

The really problematic r's are the final ones: "Forrrr everrrrr and
everrrr..." I think Grace Cathedral's choir would head toward an
American r but not square it off all the way; some midwestern r's can
practically cut glass.

On Fri, Dec 9, 2016 at 10:25 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen
<magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
> There has to be a happy medium.  I realize that hovering on the  "r"
> consonants can be deadly, but there isn't anything second class
> about North American accents, and it's where all the action is for
> change in the English language.  Witness the Northern Cities  Vowel
> Shift :-)




-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA