We should be posting translations!
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    I've been struggling to find translations of all our Latin chants. Not being a Latin scholar myself (getting education out here in the hinterlands of Colorado is difficult!) I do a lot of searching for English translations. I've ended up copying things from many sources, even sometimes (gad!) Wikipedia.

    I firmly believe that ANYthing we sing should be understood, so I make sure my schola has translations. But I see that a lot of chant music gets posted, here and elsewhere, which doesn't include translations.

    I've used ChoralWiki a lot and other sources which are hit-and-miss, especially when you find verse mismatches.

    Would it be possible to start capturing that here and in the other repositories of music which have been created?
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Ideally we would have the Gregorian Missal online
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    If the translations you desire are of the propers, here is an invaluable source:
    'Sacred Latin Texts and English Translations
    for the Choral Conductor & Church Musician:
    Propers of the Mass'
    Compiled by William Bausano
    Music Reference Collection, Number 68
    1998
    Greenwood Press
    88 Post Road West
    Westport, Connecticutt: 06881
    ISBN 0-313-30636-2

    It is expensive (if still in print) but well worth the investment. It has, in alphabetical order, the complete lesser propers together with a Tudor-like translation. Many motets being settings of the proper, it is a wonderfully useful book, not only for translations but for determining original liturgical usage. You realise, of course, that in the Graduale Romanum scriptural references are given for each proper, and it is a simple matter to follow these to the Douai, KJ, or other Bible for a translation.

    Another very good source is:
    Translations and Annotations of Choral Repertoire
    Volume I: Sacred Latin Texts
    Compiled & Annotated by Ron Jeffers
    1988
    Earthsongs
    220 NW 29th Street
    Corvallis, Oregon: 97330
    ISBN 0-9621532-1-4
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    Thanks for the pointers! The Gregorian Missal is wonderful for the things I use from it, but I'm greedy - I want all the hymns too! ;-)
  • a1437053a1437053
    Posts: 198
    Mr. Tucker: when?
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    When? When what?
  • a1437053a1437053
    Posts: 198
    That the Gregorian Missal would be online?
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Well, we can dream, can't we?
  • Dan F.Dan F.
    Posts: 205
    I think what you need is already available, at least mostly, through sites devoted to the traditional latin mass. I've had success finding the chant in the 1962 calendar via the Liber Usualis and then looking up the appropriate days online for a translation. Here are two sites you may find useful. The first seems very complete, with years of archives available, but is rather difficult to navigate. But the translations are all there. The second site seems less complete, with only Sundays and major feasts, but is very easy to navigate and has printable pdf booklets.

    http://www.dailycatholic.org/ (click on the graphic at the top of the page)
    http://uvoc.org/Propers.html

    I hope this helps!
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