How to sing French vocal music　－Research on pronunciation－

Whether French vocal music is sung successfully or not depends on how precisely the vocalist can pronounce the French lyrics. For the benefit of such vocalists, in this essay, based on Camille Maurane's report, "Advice for Japanese Vocalists Who Sing French Vocal Music." I examine (1) the similarity and difference between French and Japanese pronunciation and (2) an effectivc way to pronounce French for Japanese vocalists. When French vocal music is sung, it is very important for the vocalists not only to grasp the dynamism of the music as a whole but also to understand the intonation, accent and rhyme of the lyrics. This is the reason I quote from dictionaries. music scores and, in order to refer to the liaison and movement of intonation, French conversation. Based on these factors, first I look into lyrics as separate from the music. Through this process, we might be able to know how the conrposer listened to and felt about the lyrics. Then. we can find out how the lyrics' rhyme and intonation go together with their accompaniment and, at the sarne time, we can understand the lyrics more profoundly than before. The problem for Japanese is that it is difficult to get instructive materials on French "sound," while we have a lot of literary works like translations and researches on French literature, It is necessary for vocalists to acquire knowledge of the language in which the music is sung. Japanese people generally are not good at recognizing and pronouncing French sounds, but once they get familiar with them. they can have the confidence to sing in French. I write this essay because I think we need, along with the interpretation of the music itself a guideline for the rules of pronunciation when vocalists sing French vocal music