• Curated to be the most comprehensive English-language resource for French lyric diction
• Provides recommendations for all aspects of the sung French language, including rarer cases and exceptions, pronunciation options, conventions for loanwords and names, and obscure spellings
• Includes pronunciation dictionaries of proper nouns and musical terms not given anywhere else

Singers, teachers, coaches, and conductors will appreciate French Lyric Diction: A Singer's Guide for its thorough account of the language as it is sung in opera and mélodie. Often-overlooked topics are explored, including phrasal and emphatic stress, vocalic length, singing the French r, and traditions in the setting of French poetry. Considerable attention is paid to the subject of liaison, with recommendations on how to make decisions about optional liaisons in singing. A comprehensive guide to orthography provides instruction on the pronunciation of all French spellings, including many optional secondary pronunciations, and accepted francisé pronunciation for loanwords. Pronunciation dictionaries give transcriptions for over 10,000 names of composers, poets, artists, roles, performers, characters, and places, as well as everyday musical terms.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
PART ONE: Singing in French
Introduction
Chapter 1: The International Phonetic Alphabet in French
Chapter 2: French Vowel Sounds
Chapter 3: French Consonant Sounds
Chapter 4: The 'Consonant-Vowel Flow' of the French Phrase
Chapter 5: Liaison
Chapter 6: Mute e in French Poetry and Vocal Music
Chapter 7: Special Pronunciation Considerations
PART TWO: French Pronunciation A-Z
Preamble to Part Two
A Comprehensive Pronunciation Guide to French Orthography
PART THREE: Pronunciation Dictionaries
Preamble to Part Three
Pronunciation Dictionary of Proper Nouns
Pronunciation Dictionary of Borrowed Italian Musical Terms
Bibliography
Index