Klarinet Archive - Posting 000072.txt from 2005/11

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Fayrfax Carol and pronunciation
Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 20:02:24 -0500

Joseph H. Fasel wrote:

> Ah Joseph, you are a kindred spirit--another amateur (I presume)
> philologist! Thank you for the carol; it's beautiful. I would guess
> that it's late Middle English, say, 14th- or 15th-century?

Hmm, I wouldn't call myself an amateur philologist; I just love words,
is all, and that covers everything around. One of these days I'd like
to be able to read Dante's Divine Comedy in the original Italian, but
currently non capisco troppo bene. :-P

Anyway, the carol is early Tudor, something I'm not too knowledgeable
about; the reason I know that particular piece is because Thomas Adès
wrote a setting of it for the King's College choir (I think for the Nine
Lessons and Carols ceremony one year). I do recommend getting hold of
it; it's on the CD "America: A Prophecy" on EMI Classics, a thoroughly
marvellous disc.

> On this particular point, however, we're talking about the 18th
> century, and most European languages have been fairly stable since the
> 16th, Italian more so than English, I've been told.

Well, I think we're talking about two subtly different things here. On
the one hand we have pronunciation of words in the langugage and that I
would agree has been pretty stable for some time in most modern
languages. If Shakespeare's actors were to perform today in front of
us, we'd probably understand what they were saying pretty well, though
their accent might be different from "received English". But in respect
to the "Gran Partitta" we're not talking about pronunciation per se but
about the relationship between spelling and punctuation. I don't think
that relationship was anywhere near as rigorous as it is today. So, I
don't see that whoever wrote "Gran Partitta" on Mozart's manuscript
necessarily intended it to be pronounced differently from "Gran Partita".

On the other hand I certainly would not censure any pronunciation of
this work's title that might be misunderstood as something along the
lines of "Mozart's Big Pair of Bradleys". :-D

-- Joe

P.S. Since you liked the verse I quoted, here's the complete Fayrfax Carol:

'A, my dere, a, my dere Son,'
Seyd Mary, 'A, my dere;
my dere, a, my dere Son,
Kys thy moder, Jhesu,
Kys thy moder, Jhesu,
With a lawghyng chere.'

This endurs nyght
I sawe a syght
All in my slepe:
Mary, that may,
She sang lullay
And sore did wepe.
To kepe she sought
Full fast aboute
Her Son from colde;
Joseph seyd 'Wiff,
My joy, my lyff,
Say what ye wolde'
'Nothing, my spowse,
Is in this howse
Unto my pay;
My Son, a Kyng
That made all thyng,
Lyth in hay.'
'My moder dere
Amend your chere
And now be still;
Thus for to lye
It is sothely
My Fadirs will
Derision,
Gret passion,
Infynytly, infynytly
As it is fownd,
Many a wownd
Suffyr shall I.
On Calvery
That is so hye
Ther shall I be,
Man to restore
Naylid full sore
Uppon a tre.'

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