CELEBRATING 220th ANNIVERSARY of PUBLICATION of THE GREEN SNAKE AND THE BEAUTIFUL LILY

Thirteen Posts on this Blog have been devoted to my reading instalments of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's masterful Fairy Tale - The Green Snake and The Beautiful Lily. The current thirteenth reading, is two-thirds of the way through the story. These readings, alternating with descriptions and recordings for each consonant of the English Alphabet, will be completed by Autumn 2015.

In London in the Autumn I am offering two consecutive and linked Workshops exploring the characters in the Tale and their speeches.

This piece of world literature is a beautiful, meaningful story in which the characters weave together how collectively they make their society a wonderful place in which to live.

It was written by Goethe at the time of the French Revolution in response to letters from a German playwright Frederick Schiller who was concerned about how society would re-build itself.

In the Workshops I introduce the characters and enable everyone to explore the ones they become most interested in. Through fifteen Playlets I have created we experience being the characters and what they say.

Through this we can link the characters to everyday life. For example, when I was a Gamesmaker at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012 I could liken the athletes as the Beautiful Lily, the spectators as the Youth Prince, who wanted to be with the Lily and the gamesmakers as the green Snake who became one of the "bridges" between the two 'meeting' at all the many locations for the sporting events.

Everyone is most welcome to these Workshops. They will take place at Rudolf Steiner House, 35, Park Road, London NW1 6XT. The nearest London tube station is Baker Street. The Workshops will start at 10.30am and finish at 4.30pm each day. A small contribution towards the cost of hiring the room we use would be appreciated. I will publish the dates of the two Workshops on this Blog in the Spring.

You do not need to know the Fairy Tale. Just come and find out about it. Let me know by e-mail  robinlivingspeech@gmail.com if you want to come or would like more information.

I look forward to seeing you.

Robin

We have now arrived at the English Consonant Q, shown in lower case as q.

This is a particularly critical sound. Imagine trying to speak the words "question" or "quiet" without this consonant. It has an inherent artistic quality which requires the whole mouth, air being channelled through it, to deliver the sound q.

This consonant is always followed by the vowel u and at least one other vowel. In addition to "question and "quiet" other examples are "quality", "quota", "squash", "racquet".

When together with q, the vowel u helps create the combined sound of kw.

Some words appear specifically designed to capitalise upon the characteristic and quality of q.
An example is the Scottish word for a shallow two-handled drinking cup or bowl - a "quaich". It derives from the Scottish Gaelic word "cauch". Quaich has further vowels of a and i. This word is a good example where pronouncing three vowels adjacent to each other requires a particularly flexible use of the mouth.

Try speaking this word. Phonetically it sounds like "qwaych". Experience: how the q drives the sounds that follow; how the sounds from "way" require the mouth to open wide and let the air exhale; how the "ch" sound is formed using the remaining air. The sound "ch" is the same as how ch in the word "loch" (a stretch of Scottish water) is pronounced. The h in the combined letters of ch has the sound of a soft, almost muted, k.  

Create a phrase or sentence that requires frequent use of words with qu in them. Here is my example:

Inadequate questions, queries, quibbles like these are quarrelsome and quadruple the quagmire and quandary I find myself in.

I have placed the words that contain qu in order of their presenting additional vowels from the least to the most opening of the lips - ah, eh, ee, oh, oo 

The high ratio of vowels to consonants in the words in this sentence containing qu, together with the these words being adjacent or close to each other, exercise flexibility, clarity and preciseness in forming sounds. Enjoy creating your own sentence or phrase.

In the attached recording I explore the sound of qu, speak the above sentence and experiment with its "tongue-twisting" nature.



Please share sentences you create and experiences from speaking them via  robinlivingspeech@gmail.com and Twitter robinblackmore2

Good luck.