An American Singer's Guide to Swedish Lyric Diction

Abstract

Swedish art song is seldom performed in its original language by American singers, despite Sweden's long and notable history of internationally recognized native classical singers who have introduced Swedish song to American audiences. These songs appear to be deserving of consideration for several reasons. First, the works of many Swedish song composers have been acclaimed by both performers and scholars. Second, American musicians perform and study works composed by the mainstream European peers of numerous Swedish song composers. Third, Swedish song is performed in its original language in other European countries by non-Swedish singers. The preceding statements suggest that American singers should, at the very least, have access to resources that enable them to explore the Swedish art song repertory. One factor that may be responsible for the dearth of performances of Swedish song by American singers is the perceived inaccessibility of the Swedish language. Swedish lyric diction is taught at very few American universities and conservatories. Swedish language courses, while not quite as rare, are not offered at most institutions. Most notably, there is a near total omission of the Swedish language from lyric diction resources written in English. The present work will address this omission. The purpose of this project is to provide American singers with a diction resource that will allow them to formulate and pronounce IPA transcriptions of Swedish song texts. This resource should enable informed performances of Swedish vocal repertoire by American singers. This study may also be useful to choral conductors interested in performing Swedish choral works.