hw/w in performance

[Damien Hall]

As a side note to the recent discussion of isoglosses for hw/w, something on
perception of the (geographical distribution of the) two variants.  In the
choir I sing in, we're currently singing three madrigals by English composers
of the sixteenth-seventeenth century (Dowland and Wilbye).  We are, of course,
doing them in a fairly exaggerated version of English English, and we're being
directed to sing all <wh-> -words with /hw/.  I infer that the director thinks
that <wh> = /hw/ is part of the sort of British accent that you should use when
you want that accent to come across very clearly; in fact, as far as I can see
hw/w is variable there just as it is here, though there I do think there's a
(slight) social component whereby /hw/ is more likely the higher up you go in
class.

Other things we're doing to make ourselves (well, make the rest of them) sound
British are the features you'd expect, like properly-rounded long and short
open-o, and r-lessness.  I pointed out at our last rehearsal, though, that Brits
can/do pronounce word-final /r/ before a word-initial vowel, and the director
said he'd rather people sang such contexts ('here is' is one we have) with a
slight hiatus rather than with an 'excessively American r', as he put it.  I
won't labour the point, as the hiatus is also acceptable in BrE, and I also
think that putting a hiatus in even when you don't strictly need one is part of
doing the *exaggeratedly* British performance that is necessary from the singers
if the audience are to perceive a performance of *normal* Britishness.  (This is
always true in performance:  if you do stuff that seems to you to be exaggerated
to silly levels, the audience will perceive it at normal levels.)

Has anyone (non-British) on here every had to act or otherwise perform a Brit?
Was <wh> = /hw/ one of the features you chose to adopt?  What other ones are
there?

Incidentally, anyone in the Philadelphia area on the weekend of 12-13 April is
welcome to come and hear us do our British thing.  The main draw of the concert
(for me) is the Tallis *Lamentations*.  12 April in Paoli, 13 April in
Philadelphia.  E-mail me for details!

Damien Hall
University of Philadelphia

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