Pronunciation Guide for Veni, Creator chant
  • Claire H
    Posts: 370

    Friends,

    Does anyone have or know of a pronunciation guide for the Latin text of Veni, Creator Spiritus? I know someone who needs it asap in preparation for this weekend.

    Thank you in advance!
  • ContinuousbassContinuousbass
    Posts: 357
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3hk_z_69iw

    This YouTube seems to have a basic guide, maybe a bit different than the more scholarly general latin guides out there among the Gregorian chant resources.
    Thanked by 1Choirparts
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Just the first page of this transliteration causes me to wonder: why is the "o" of "hostem" rendered "oh" when virtually every other "o" is rendered with the (correct) formation "aw?"
    I'm quite unaware that the "h" modifies the vowel. If so, please splain for me.
  • ContinuousbassContinuousbass
    Posts: 357
    Wikipedia notes that there is a long and short o:

    ó /oː/
    o /ɔ/
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    The work cited as a reference for that point is a guide to pronunciation of classical Latin.

    Also, the article says, "most Latin speakers since the 3rd century have not made any distinction between long and short vowels".
  • ContinuousbassContinuousbass
    Posts: 357
    Modern Greek, too, has an omicron, and an omega, but both are pronounced the same.
    Eleison seems to be pronounce with short o usually, -awn, a Greek word used in a Latin liturgy.
    I tend to pronounce all my latin o's the same, as a long o, due to my previous familiarity with modern Greek.
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,798
    There is some Solesmes preface claiming there are only 5 vowels, but in the real world Italian singers of Latin use all the sounds of their own tongue, e & é as well as o & ó. I believe we've discussed the word Domino in the past ("Dawmeenaw" anyone? No, really, anyone?), and Harold Copeman (Singing in Latin, or Pronuciation explored...) documents this in detail. In the Italian Latin chapter of Singing Early Music (ed.T. J. McGee) Copeman mentions variants of "u" (tending to French /y/in the Northwest) and "a" (somewhat fronted in the North) as well.
    Thanked by 2chonak CHGiffen
  • Chris HebardChris Hebard
    Posts: 124
    Previous discussion here.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • ChoirpartsChoirparts
    Posts: 147
    I thought the Veni Creator Spiritus video looked familiar... I used the pronunciation from "The Correct Pronunciation of Latin..." by Rev Michael de Angelis. The book is available for download in pdf on ccwatershed website.

    link: http://www.ccwatershed.org/media/pdfs/12/07/05/19-20-13_0.pdf
  • brndurham
    Posts: 71
    Latin is always a pain for me: I use Received Pronunciation for singing, so I always have to remember to tap those blasted r's instead of leaving them off the way I normally do.
Add a Comment