Saturday 12 March 2011

Et cum spiritu tuo

Et avec votre esprit.

Just not that hard.

Personally, I'd stick with Latin, because that is the primary text from which all translations start and happily read a fairly literal translation, but I'm not one for too much wordy wordy English.

All this translation business does make you wonder to what extent the Reformation was driven by the use of the vernacular - English and German and the printing press.

In music we see a shift from melismatic text setting in imitative counterpoint sung by professional musicians to syllabic, metrical, homophonic congregational hymns. All is clear, but not necessarily very beautiful.

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