How do you pronounce MIRACLES word when singing the When You Believe?

Pasay, Philippines
January 11, 2012 8:47am CST
We have new videoke in our house so it happens that my mom tried to sing the "When You Believe". I just noticed when she is singing the phrase [i]There can be miracles When you believe [/i] She is saying it in the usual pronunciation like MI-REH-KELS. For all I know it should be MI-REH-KAHLS when singing so that it won't be out of the tone. So I really bothered to listen on how Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston sing it. I think I am right because as what I've heard it is MI-REH-KAHLS as in AHHH instead of EHLS. When I've watched the choirs in our local term they even said it MI-RAH-KAHHLSS!!! Because the tone will be higher. Nothing this is just for fun. It happened that my mom inspired to sing that because of her student who is into singing and he already sang that song. What about you have you tried to sing When You Believe? How did you also pronounce the MIRACLES?
3 responses
myzhian
@myzhian (584)
• Philippines
12 Jan 12
I agree with you owlwings, in singing you need to find ways or use some techniques to say the word properly and effortlessly, because more breathing and vocal cord muscles are used when singing, differ from just saying or uttering the word in a normal speech!.......Actually before responding to this discussion I tried a little bit vocalizing the lines having the MIRACLE word to find it how! Lol!
1 person likes this
Metatronik
@Metatronik (6198)
• Pasay, Philippines
27 Mar 12
Good thing at least you tried. In my case I tried the word mirror culls or calls while responding to owlings.
Just an Ordinary Owl?
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
11 Jan 12
The normal pronounciation of the word (in speech) is accented with the stress on the first syllable and the vowel 'a' pronounced as a schwa (usually rendered as 'uh'). There is no true vowel at all in the last syllable (the 'e' is considered silent), but most people pronounce it as if there were a very short, undetermined vowel between the 'C' and the 'L' (in the Latin, from which the word, comes, there is, indeed a short 'u' in this position). When singing, it is necessary to 'invent' a suitable vowel for a syllable which occurs on a stressed note or one which is held for anything longer than a quaver (or quarter note). Most people pronounce or think of the schwa sound as a very short, unstressed 'a' (like the indefinite article), though it is actually closer to the 'u' in 'cup'. If you say the word 'Miracles' slowly, it seems to naturally come out sounding rather like 'mir-ror culls' or 'mir-ror calls' and this is how many people would sing it if the word occurred in a slow, even rhythm. Part of the duty and, indeed, object of setting words to music is to preserve the natural stresses and rhythm of them in the tune, at least so that they are intelligible and easy to sing. The natural rhythm of the word would be either as a triplet, with the stress on the first note, or as a crochet (half-note) followed by two quavers (quarter notes).
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Metatronik
@Metatronik (6198)
• Pasay, Philippines
27 Mar 12
Wow you gave me an idea on how to do that properly. At least I realized it now. I've tried to tune up with the mir-ror culls or calls. I just realized that it is more compatible.
Theresaaiza
@Theresaaiza (10487)
• Australia
12 Jan 12
Hi metatronik, honestly, we find it funny, us Visayan folks down here, how Tagalogs pronounce your CLE-ending words as KEL. "Tricy-kel", "mira-kel","un-kel". You know what I mean. Well, I respect the uniqueness. We get all criticisms for our "hard" tongues all the time so it's just fair enough. I believe it should be pronounced as it should be pronounced. It's not really Mi-re-KAHLS but more of like Mi-rah-kl. As you say 'cle, your teeth look like you're gritting them. Not Kal, not kel, and definitely not Kool.
Theresaaiza
@Theresaaiza (10487)
• Australia
29 Mar 12
Hi metatronik, I know we cannot touch on this topic without sounding too regionalistic. It's just that we get too much of that criticism that it really has shoot off to annoying levels. I for one never really had an issue with how tagalogs say things until we get discriminated for our accent which really should not matter at all, in my opinion, because what's important is that we understand each other. For the record, when tagalogs try their hardest to speak Bisaya, they sound, I'm sorry, silly. But then, they don't have a need to learn the language because we automatically adjust to that and speak tagalog for their sake. The point is, we deserve the respect as much as you do. I hope you can re-echo this to everyone concerned. Going back to the topic, now LEV is definitely exaj. Just as much as MEM for Ma'am is exaj and yes i hear that all the time. It's nice to make gentle corrections. Some people may not take it nicely though. But they will learn in time. And also I beg to disagree that we were trained only with proper grammar. Because as far as I remember, our English teacher was very strict and particular with dipthongs or phonetics etcetera etcetera. So with spelling. It probably is different from one school to the other. So I take it that you are part of a choir? I just assumed since you mentioned conductor. That's good to hear.
Metatronik
@Metatronik (6198)
• Pasay, Philippines
27 Mar 12
If that is general aspect of pronunciation like when we are conversing with people then I think we have to understand and respect it as well if it is regional tone because all we have been trained is about the proper grammar and not really the accent of pronunciation. But this one is different because this is singing aspect. I remember the conductor even told us that there are some Filipinos who are trying hard on the accent. For example others pronounce the word LOVE as LEV whereas in singing that should be really LAAHHVVV or I think LOHHVV with big AHH or O. Well I don't remember but it shouldn't be E or A.