A Brief History of Lyric Diction Pedagogy: Part I—Twentieth-Century Beginnings

Abstract: This is the first article of a two-part series in which associate editor Matthew Hoch explores the history of lyric diction pedagogy from its formal twentieth-century beginnings to the present day. In part I, early attempts at formulating a systematic pedagogy are chronicled through an examination of academic articles in the Journal of Singing , seminal textbooks, the integration of language proficiency into standards of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), and the increasing importance of the International Phonetic Alphabet to linguistics. Part II will explore twenty-first century developments and the shifting landscape of lyric diction pedagogy that singers experience in the current milieu.