Sprechstimme

While Z has always been one to recite his books, on occasions where I've tried to be silly and sing bits of the books while reading them, he's always stopped me and told me I was reading it wrong. But in the past day or so, he's suddenly taken up the call himself -- sometimes with little melodies, and sometimes just more of a lilt, but nonetheless singing some of his favorite tales. It reminds me more than anything of what in college musical history class was the 20th century avant garde technique of speak-singing, though thankfully Z prefers to stick with more traditional dominant/tonic tonal relationships and accessible rhythms rather than going full-on Schoenberg atonal on us. Anyway, here's this morning's rendition of P.D. Eastman's "Go, Dog. Go!". (Irony: the local children's theater did a musical of this same book a few years ago. Time for a revival?)