Search the Products Store
Search the Book Store
clog dancing Book Store Index
Privacy Policy
Copyright Notice
Home
|
|
Accents: A Manual for Actors- Revised and Expanded Edition |
Author: Robert Blumenfeld
Published: 2004-08-01 |
List price: $29.95
Our price: $29.35
|
Usually ships in 24 hours
As of: October 06th, 2008 06:26:58 PM
|
|
|
Customer comments on this selection.
 Accents- A manual for Actors
Blackstone sent me a great book in great condition, as promised. I did not realize when they said without a CD, that it meant the book originally had one. I thought they meant it was published without a corresponding CD to listen to the dialects. I would give Blackstone 5 Stars for being expeditious and having the book in excellent condition; and 3 stars that I noted because they really should have been clearer about the difficulty in NOT having the CD that was made for the book.
I would have spent more for a book with a CD so I could hear the dialects, this way it is really too difficult.
 Laughable
I tend to judge the value of a book on accents by listening to an example of the way I, as an Australian, supposedly speak. From this I tend to gauge the accuracy of the other accents.
Robert Blumenfeld has obviously NEVER heard an Australian speak. There may be, in some remote corner of the country, someone who speaks as he describes - a cross between South African and New Zealander- but I have never encounterd them. On this basis, I would avoid this work like the plague for fear of being laughed off the stage, or screen - or out of the audition room
 Not as comprehensive as it looks
At first glance at the table of contents, it looks like this book practically covers it all, i.e. all the English language accents in the world! While the book and CD handle major European accents decently, I have to say that the Asian/ middle eastern accents are broad caricatures at best, racist at worst. I had to learn an Indonesian accent for a role and thought this book and CDs would be a great investment. The Indonesian accent was grossly approximated by Blumenfeld's deep, effete voice as a Germanic/Orientalized pidgin dialect. After further, better research on the real language and culture, I can best surmise he was attempting a white, DUTCH Indonesian accent. Perusing the other Asian accents, I saw a cursory, pidgin attempt. I haven't looked at the other accents of other continents (on the CDs) as I got tired of listening, but while this book seems to have it all, a student of theatre/acting/dialects is far best served 1.) learning the actual source language (for rhythm and structure) and history of the people(for the all important CONTEXT), 2.) contacting and interviewing people from that country through local universities/libraries/community newspapers, 3.) watching documentaries from the source country and visiting the Speech Accent Archive online.
 Accents: A Manual for Actors
Useful and valuable - for actors and theatre groups. Robert Blumenfeld really knows his stuff. Examples on the CD were great, but unfortunately short.
 Good learning tool
What I think some of the "the accents are terrible" critics are missing regarding the audio portion is that the accents are intended as exaggerations of sound for learning purposes. They're not intended as accurate representations of how the accents sound. Just as no two Scotsmen sound alike, no two actors doing Scottish accents will sound alike. The point of the audios is to explain the "phonics" of the accents, if you will, so that actors with trained ears can practice them; then they can tone down those elemental exaggerations into a subtler, more realistic accent. It's a simple case of the author acknowledging that you've got to crawl before you can walk.
I just bought the book for fun. I thought it would be neat to be able to do accents. So far I am finding the book helpful.
|
Similar Listings
|
|
Our clog dancing book picks:
|
|
Search the clog dancing Products Store
LCS Amazon Store 2.5 © 2008
|
