5.13 Liturgical pronunciation

Liturgical pronunciation of latin for choral singing

The Latin language offers the singers the advantage of singing only the five fundamental vowel sounds. None of the vowels has a second sound (diphthong). A director must take extra care to be certain that the choir does sing a pure vowel and that they do not treat the Latin language the same as they do English.

One should also be apprised that the pronunciation of the Latin language, as it appears in table 4.7, is the pronunciation used when singing. It is often referred to as Italianized or church Latin. It will, and should, differ from the Latin language as taught in the classroom by the Latin instructor. It is usually necessary to preface the first work in Latin with remarks to that effect for the benefit of some students who are currently, or have been, enrolled in a Latin class.

The life of the Latin language is in the pure vowels. They need to be consistently pronounced as indicated in table 1. Again, the IPA symbol is used along with an English word that contains the appropriate vowel sound.

A—is always pronounced as | ɑ |. Its pronunciation never changes, even when it occurs in an unstressed syllable. It never becomes uh | ʌ | or | ə |).

E (AE and OE)—these vowels should always be pronounced as indicated in table 1. They should never receive a second sound, such as in the word may | mɛɪ | . They are not diphthongs and do not have a second vowel sound. This vowel sound is one of two that are mispronounced the most by choirs. While the vowel is to be pronounced as | ɛ |, it may legitimately have more brightness than we give that sound in English.

I , Y—these vowels are always pronounced as | i |. The word in is mispronounced by many choirs as | ɪn | (ihn) rather than as | in | (een). "In ex-celsis" is a text so often sung by choirs that it should be noted that the letter i { in and - sis ) receives the pronunciation of | i | in both instances.

0—this is the other vowel that is mispronounced so often. It is not to be pronounced as though it were an o in the English word go . It does not receive the second vowel sound of that word, the | ʊ | vanish. The tone must be maintained on the first of the English sounds, the | o |, until the next consonant or vowel is sung. Have the choir sing the | o | as they normally would, but do not let them change to the | ʊ | vanish. Ask them to release by taking a breath at your signal. Give the signal somewhat prematurely to prevent them from sounding the | ʊ | vanish. The Latin o receives the pronunciation as in our word awe , with no trace of a second sound.

U—this sound should never be pronounced as the | ʊ | in full or with a preceding | i | sound, as in you . It is always pronounced | u | as in noon .

Other vowel combinations such as AU , EI , EU , and OU must be dealt with individually. The AU should be pronounced as the ou in the word house . The first vowel should be maintained until the very last moment when the second vowel is sounded, just before passing to the next syllable.