In Love With Words

Laurel Masse, a singer, takes notes on the rhythm of words in her revived passion for language:

What I have been discovering in acting – illuminated by the skills of the wonderful actors I am working with – is that the words themselves have a melody, subtle, but strong. Though I've often told shy, first-time singers that singing is just "long saying", I forgot to tell myself that saying is like singing on (sometimes) shorter notes and (most of the time) in the range of speech.

 

But honest! I was not prepared for Shakespeare, nor had I imagined that any words short of those of a man I love telling me, "I have always loved you" could be so profoundly thrilling. In Shakespeare's plays, even the villains can speak (not like today, eh?). Perhaps I am coming late to this banquet, but as my friend RIchie used to say, "I may have been born yesterday, but I stayed up all night."