Ecclesiastical Latin

The pronunciation of Latin used in the Gregorian chant and the Roman Liturgie is not completely that of traditional Latin. The rules of this pronunciation were stabilized only under Charlemagne, with the ars bucket loquendi (left the Trivium Quadrivium which formalizes the grammar and the pronunciation of Latin, in particular the place of the accent).

As showed it modern research, the accent of the Latin text is with the root of the Gregorian rate/rhythm. For the good execution of the Gregorian chant, it is thus the accent which is priority. The ecclesiastical pronunciation is relatively secondary (a traditional phonetics does not change the nature of the melody).

Phonetics

; Pronunciation of the vowels

has decides as in French (Lord's Prayer)
E is never dumb, and generally decides E (Deus)
I decides as in French (vidi).
O decides as in French (creed).
U decides OR (Deus).
Æ and Œ decides E (aeternae).
AI and OR decides in two syllables, AI and O-OU.
WITH, AY, HAVE and I.E.(internal excitation) decide of only one emission of voice.

; Pronunciation of the consonants

C decides K in front of a consonant and in front of has, O and U (creed). It is useful if not to mark various quality of its CH:

SC decides CH (ascendit).
C in front of its E and I, it decides (T) CH, i.e. CH preceded by its T very light (Caecilia = tchétchili-a).
DC decides T-TCh (with a pause marked on its T): ecce
XC decides KCh (in excitus).
CH on the other hand decides K (cherubim).

G in front of E and I decides DJ (agimus).
GN decides as in lamb (agnus).
J has the sound of Y and form diphthong with the following vowel (Jesus).
M and NR is strongly articulated and never nasalisent the preceding vowel (semper, sanctus).

S always decides C (Jesus), never Z.
X decides KÇ (exaudi).
TI decides (T) C (a its S preceded by its T very light), except behind the letters S, X and T (gratia, hostia).
Z decides DZ (zelus).

In the words mihi, nihil and their compounds, H decide K.

Ars bucket loquendi

The Gregorian chant watch what it owes with the primitive practice of the Cantilation, when the melody does nothing but follow the sentence stresses by underlining them. This situation is very frequent in the Antienne S and the parts Syllabique S.

Place de l' Latin accent

The Latin words several syllables are organized around a stressed syllable.

the monosyllables are not accentuated (except possibly at the end of the sentence).
In the words of two syllables, the accent is on the first syllable.
In the words of more than two syllables, the accent is either on before last syllable, or on the preceding one.

The place of the accent is indicated in the books by an acute accent. It is generally indicated only for the words of three syllables or more.

To determine with certainty the place of the accent, it is necessary to see in a dictionary the length of the syllables.

If before last syllable (=pénultième) is long, it is accentuated (a double vowel - ae, with, oe- is long, just as a vowel in front of two consonants);
If before last syllable is short, the accent is on the preceding one (antepenultimate).

The accent can fall exceptionally on the last syllable from the word, when a monosyllabic word is rejected at the end of the sentence, or on a Hebrew word.

Types of accents

According to the languages, one can meet three types of stressing:

an accent of duration (which lengthens the duration of the syllable),
a tonic stress (by emitting the syllable with more force),
a pitch (while varying the ton of the voice), which it is to the top (acute accent) or to the bottom (grave accent).
Moreover, the attack of the words or the incidental clauses is often marked by a short tonic stress.

These types are not exclusive from/to each other, and “the accent”, taken absolutely, accentuates at the same time the force, the duration and the height.

The type of the Latin accent varied in time, and sometimes superimposed accents of different nature on various syllables. The rules of stressing applicable to ecclesiastical Latin are those of the post-traditional time, which did not make any more the difference between long and short vowels.

The ecclesiastical accent is before a whole tonic stress, which can be accompanied by a small accent by duration, and relative accent height if the overall prosody allows it.

Practical of rhythmic verbal

The stressing of Latin gives already the musical quality to the language. The perfect speaker, said Cicéron, which is that can exhume text its cantus obscurior : its hidden song, or latent song.

In the déclamés texts, the accents are marked, all things in addition, by:

a stronger intensity;
a height generally acuter (but which yields with the overall prosody);
On the other hand, one not modulated duration, without going until being short (however, the accent can fall on a long syllable, which marks its natural length then).

Conversely, the finales are marked by:

a lower intensity;
a fall in the height, which tends towards the low register (except when the overall prosody requires it).

On their side, the incidental clauses are marked by:

a preparatory fall height and speed;
a " trou" in the succession of times of supports (the caesura);
a recovery marking the attack by a short but frank syllable, therefore slightly accentuated in intensity (>).

Lastly, the duration of the syllables is more or less lengthened, to find medium term between three contradictory esthetic requirements: the isochronie of syllabic time, the periodicity of accentuated times, and the adaptation to the overall prosody.

These rules are at the base of the style Psalmodique. This is why the choruses practitioner the Gregorian chant are often invited to stress the Latin text before singing it, for good to penetrate itself of the intrinsic musical quality (melody and rhythmic) of the sentence.

These rules are not absolute, but must then adapt to the requirements of the overall prosody: place word in the incidental clause, and places incidental clause in the sentence. As illustration, one can study the prosody of the Lord's Prayer into Gregorian, which makes practically only note what would be a a little musical elocution of the text.

; Déconditionnement For the French-speaking interpreter, a good restitution of a Latin text requires an effort, and one déconditionnement compared to the reflex " gaulois" who tends systematically to place an accent on the final syllables, and to go up the height of it towards the acute one when it is about an end of incidental clause. It is a correct, but incorrect French prosody for Latin, and who leads to a defective interpretation for the Gregorian chant.

In the assemblies which practice liturgical Latin, one indeed often hears a stressing " gauloise" (which at best points out the Provence accent):

R. innate Dóm , not sum di' gnus' (/), C intres sub tectum me' um' (/): Sed tantum dic ver' bo' (/), and sanábi' tur' (/) áni' ma' (/) me' a' (\).

A stressing rythmiquement and musicalement conforms to Latin would require on the other hand an accent of the Italian type:

R. Dóm innate, not sum dig naked (\), C int LMBO sub tce tum me um (\) (-): Sed tan tum dic worm bo (\), and sa' ná bitur á nima me' has (\).

Liturgical Word

Passage du language with Crowned

The passage of the word to the song is the sign of a sacralization of the speech. The presence of a song shows the presence of a particular intentionality conscious, which is the principal condition to open a space of spirituality.

Declamation

The declamation is a first stage of this sacralization of the language. The emphase and the stressing of the rate/rhythm form a deterioration conscious and deliberated on the stating, used like signs spiritualization. The declamation thus gives already to the language a transcendent nature, which is appropriate consequently for the not sung readings. However, even if the declamation is already an art, it is not clearly perceived by the listener. It thus does not make it take part in this spiritual exercise.

Cantillation

The second phase towards the song is the cantillation, which consists of a declamation marked, and increased by a musicalisation of the voice. This musicalisation consists in giving to the voice the rich harmonics used in the song, and consciously exploiting the height of the voice, without however fixing the voice compared to a precise note.

In the cantillation, the use of a vocal technique is clearly felt by the listener, who can thus perceive the explicitly crowned character of the ceremony. On the other hand, without reference to a precise height, the cantillation is necessarily the fact of a single executant, outwards whose it does not have an existence. If the listener can perceive crowned cantillation, it is thus implicitly isolated of the access to the field crowned itself, whose executant is the single intercessor.

Song recto tono

The most elementary chant opens at the third stage, that of the song recto tono. The emitted sound - of physical nature and objective - crystallizes then in musical note - of abstract and subjective nature, which has a clean existence, independent of the executant. This passage to the abstract has a double spiritual significance.

On the one hand, the language comes into contact with something of atemporel, which thus takes part in the eternal nature of the divine one, and can consequently represent the discussion thread of the prayer towards God.
In addition, all the listeners can communier with this rise towards crowned, by the only fact that they become conscious of the note itself, beyond the sound by which it appears physically.

Setting in front of spiritual dimension

The Gregorian chant achieves its spiritual goal only if he manages to evoke this abstracted dimension, and to be detached from its physique intended to evoke it. From this point of view, the principal quality requested from the executant is thus to be erased and know to be made forget, once the crowned sphere was correctly evoked by the song. Interpretation should never be brilliant or personalized, without being for as much mièvre or insipid, it must aim at the essence, which is to move the spirit elsewhere.

Simple: Latin Ecclesiastical

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