[CrackMonkey] latin translation

[Peter Peterson II]

begin  Eric Rachner quotation:
> ...latin...

	Also, another question for the latinos:
	
	I was a music major in college -- and I moonlight as a singer
in a church here in Chicago. Throughout life, every, and I mean
*every* director has a different pronunciation schema for latin. 

The most recent programming/deprogramming quandry i find myself in is 
in regards to the pronunciation of the vowel 'e'. Most of my life,
directors have told me to use an 'ay' sound (minus dipthong) in place
of e. Alleluia --> Ah-lay-loo-eeya (singing pronunciation, not proper
syllabification). My current director (and his assistant,) are big on
the "eh" sound, (eh as in let, not as in the Eh? of Canadia) which is
against what has been burned into my mind. Alleluia then more closely
resembles the English alleluia --> Ah-leh-loo-eeya.

Is this a matter of personal preference? Is it a matter of the
difference between sung and spoken? Often times a language's vowels
are modified when sung -- for example, long a (ay) is more conducive
to a good tone than short a (eh), even though 'eh' may be more
accurate for speech*.  (Hence, it may be an acceptable tradition to 
sing the vowels as such.) Or, it could just be swarms of
poorly educated musicians.

It worries me that I find the 'eh' pronunciations in circles of
'higher-educated' directors-- which could mean a higher level of
scholarship, or maybe just people with too much time on their hands.

Interested in knowing what you know, especially SDS.

pedro

* Other good examples of pronunciation mangling for the sake of music
include things like 'baa-kwerds' for 'bak-werds' and modifying R's so
that when you sing 'toaster' you don't sing 'toe-sterrrrrr', you sing
something more akin to 'toe-stah'. Anyway.