As I wrote last week, choir is anti-ai…except when it's a diphthong! Then I am very much in favour of [aI], especially when handled with care and precision. ([aI] is the IPA for the diphthong that appears in words like "night" or "light": ah + ih).
When I was a child, one choir director demanded that we sing, "O holy naht, the stahs ah brahtly shahning, it is the naht of ah dear Savyahs bath." Oof. It's painful to recreate that in writing, but I bet that I'm not alone in the experience!
Diphthongs, two vowel sounds that follow each other, and triphthongs (3 vowel sounds) are extremely common in English. And we do our choirs and audiences a disservice when we ignore them in our repertoire. We should always strive for clarity in text.
Typically, we want the sustained vowel to be the first vowel sound. In this, my school director wasn't wrong: the word "night" would need the [a] to be the more prominent vowel sound, especially on a longer held note. However, we must finish the word, and that means transitioning at some point to the [I] ('ih') sound before adding the final [t].
That transition should happen just before the final consonant, and should line up across the ensemble. This requires coordination, listening, and practice! But, in my experience, choirs of all levels can achieve unity in their diphthongs once they understand them.
Point out where diphthongs need to happen, and model it.
Have the choir speak the word slowly to themselves, noticing what their tongue is doing and how it moves.
Have them try singing it, and then sing it again while listening to each other. It will likely line up better the second time.
At the end of a held note, I will usually conduct the diphthong with my gesture to ensure it lines up. I sing while doing the gesture, and explain what it means, then they try while watching me and listening to each other.
This simple extra mini-prep and loop before the cut-off almost mimics the movement of the tongue in a word like "night," and allows the singers to know exactly where the shift in vowel happens. Without it, the timing is nebulous, and we won't get the complete diphthong before the consonant.
I've also incorporated this gesture without explaining it and gotten similar results…give it a try!
The [aI] diphthong is hardly the only one. But it's the most obvious and easiest to start with, if this is new to you or your choir, or if you've been struggling to line them up across the ensemble.
If you want help with this gesture, or any of your conducting gestures, please get in touch and let's have a lesson or two!
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