Here I am again to consult the Forums' Collective Wisdom for the young alto I've mentioned before. I'll be accompanying again her over the next few weeks. She's now in her third year as a Cambridge choral scholar and planning her graduation recital for the summer.

It will probably include Dowland's Flow my tears, Campian's When to her lute Corinna sings Purcell's If music be the food of love and Music for a while and three of Warlock's nursery rhyme settings. She would also like to include something by Britten, and writes: "I'm fairly open to what type of piece it is, although I am trying to steer away from his folksong settings, I think the piece should be slightly meatier than that. Range wise, comfortably I go up to sustained Eb but I can do momentary F's and I go as low as any female vocal music can possibly go!" I'm not sure if she has listened to any female barbershop singing!

All suggestions will be very welcome.

Try A charm of Lullabies.

How about "The Mouse is a creature of great personal valour" from "Rejoice in the Lamb"?

How about the Britten arrangement for low voice of Bonny at Morn - it's very pretty and not overly hard.

Or The Red Cockatoo and other songs.

I had forgotten that she had written in an earlier message "I'm still trying to find a chunky bit of Britten to put in my programme (maybe in the form of one of his lullabys for mezzo, HOWEVER, it is Scottish and involves rolled r's...)" She's never been able to roll an r but is hoping to have a lesson some time this holiday with a local speech and singing teacher and see if she can master (or mistress??) it.

Also with Scottish text particularly in mind I'm gradually convincing her that there is a difference between w and wh, and that occasionally failing to show it changes the sense of the words. My favourite example is "...wind like a whetted knife" from Sea Fever! My mother was brought up in Scotland so I've always used wh in normal speech.
She has sung and enjoyed that before, but it's very short. I'm delighted that the choir I sing in will be including Rejoice in the Lamb in its next concert. I was surprised at how few of us have sung it before.
That's a new title to me. Are they songs to perform as a set or a collection of individual ones?
Not this time, I think, as she wants to avoid the folk song arrangements. I don't know Britten's arrangement of that one. I often find his folk song arrangements altogether too "clever" for melodies that would originally have stood alone.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I don't wish to rain on her parade, but as a former professional phonologist, the rolled R is a genetic thing - you can either do it or you can't. If she can't do it, she won't be able to learn. Mind you, many scots can't do it, so she won't sound too daft if she sings without it.

I know what you mean about folk song arrangements. I've always found Britten to be a little more sensible than your average classical version of folk songs which take the 'let's take folk and make it sound classical and clever, cos that's better' route, and usually end up sounding vaguely ridiculous - so I sympathise there.

Anyhoo, I suppose the point of this message is to tell her to make peace with the rolled R thing, or she'll end up spending a fortune on lessons whilst believing that 'it will come with a bit of practise'.

I don't see her getting into that, even if she had unlimited money, it just seemed worth a try to have a consultation lesson, something she hasn't done before, rather than just accepting her current inability as final. I can well believe there are physical constraints that would make it impossible.

She's sung some Italian repertoire without getting hung up about it. On the other hand I think it makes sense to steer clear of repertoire for a graduation recital where an "English" (non)r would be particularly conspicuous.

The are not part of the song cycles, but independent songs. The original key is high, but they are available in a medium/low voice version.

Not that I doubt your word, but is a "flip-the-R-gene" actually scientifically proven??? I know of many people who claim that it is a genetic thing, but so far, nobody could actually show me a valid study or something, maybe I'll be lucky this time? I know that the ability to roll (up) your tongue (like in this picture: roll up your tongue ) is genetic, but that has nothing to do with singing or speaking and doesn't en- or disable you to flip or roll Rs either ...

Whole generations of speech-therapists actually spend their time teaching apical and uvular Rs (is that what they are scientifically called in English? Too lazy to look it up ), I don't think they would do this if it was hopeless. I believe it is the same with a lisp - it actually can be cured with enough practice and knowing exactly what goes on in your mouth and where the tongue has to be. And the basic ability of the tongue as an articulator is not different in different people as far as I know, it's very often laziness or wrong tuition and only rarely a physiological thing (and even if it is, that's not necessarily genetic). Most speech impediments can be resolved with enough work, but it IS work of course. I would even call it drill, and that's something many people are not prepared to go through, because they get bored or frustrated.

Also, my professional experience tells me something different. Over the last years, I had quite a few students who even have been given up as "hopeless non-R-flippers" by other teachers, and there wasn't a single one of them who wasn't able to finally learn it - they can all do it now. Maybe that's just sheer coincidence, and non of them actually had a "genetic malfunction".

As for the flipped/rolled R: If you press the tip of your tongue very firmly against your hard palate right behind your upper front teeth and then say "trr" or "drr" with quite a bit of airflow and without actually moving your tongue away, it will eventually start to flip. At the start, it will be erratic and not for very long, but it develops. There are other exercises, and many of them are actually best practised with a mirror.

I was able to teach most of these "hopeless cases" in a couple of hours (sorry if that sounds like a bit of self-praise, I don't mean it like this, I just object to the idea of giving up on something too quickly because it is supposedly "genetic", which I still don't believe). There was only one who really took several months, but even he finally learned it ...

Sorry for hijacking the thread ...