Missa de Angelis—pronunciation
  • RA981
    Posts: 11
    Hello Everyone—
    I’ve been asked to play for a priest’s first Mass. He’d like the ordinary to be the Missa de Angelis. I’m looking to give the choir something that has the Latin text along with the pronunciation beside it. I’ve searched the web and haven’t been able to locate anything that fits what I’m looking for. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks!
  • Schönbergian
    Posts: 1,063
    In what? IPA?

    A good number of Latin sounds have no real English equivalents - your best overall bet is to find and study a pronunciation guide, unless your choir can read IPA at sight.
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  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    The worst guides (including some in old editions of the Liber Usualis) attempt to spell Latin sounds using English spellings, such as using "ee" for the Latin [ɩ] sound in "gloria", or "ay" to represent the [ɛ] sound in "Deo". That sort of thing misleads beginners into using diphthongs or spread-wide vowels. Not pretty.
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  • Schönbergian
    Posts: 1,063
    And going too far open is completely wrong as well. The [ɔ̝] sound found in words like Domine has no commonplace English equivalent; same with the [ɛ̝] sound.

    If it's any help, I've attached my guide to pronunciation which attempts to arrive at a unified Latin pronunciation based on current Italian usage as well as that of ensembles like The Sixteen and the Tallis Scholars. It pre-supposes knowledge of IPA and uses narrow transcription, but I also tried to include some easy-to-understand one-liners to facilitate unified pronunciation in a choir.

    I'm sure this'll ruffle some peoples' feathers, so use at your own risk.
    The Schola Guide to Church Latin.pdf
    660K
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