{"id":44,"date":"2017-06-30T17:31:32","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T17:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-monroecc-voiceclass\/?post_type=chapter&p=44"},"modified":"2018-04-03T22:52:17","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T22:52:17","slug":"basics-of-singing-9-the-international-phonetic-alphabet","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-monroecc-voiceclass\/chapter\/basics-of-singing-9-the-international-phonetic-alphabet\/","title":{"raw":"Basics of Singing 9: The International Phonetic Alphabet","rendered":"Basics of Singing 9: The International Phonetic Alphabet"},"content":{"raw":"For couples getting married in a church, there is some desire for a traditional wedding song. One of those songs is\u00a0Ave Maria<\/i>. There are many melodies that set this text, but we will explore one of those in this lesson.\r\n\r\nThe text of\u00a0Ave Maria<\/i>\u00a0is from the Catholic prayer \u201cHail Mary.\u201d The full Latin lyrics, along with the prayer, are:\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nAve Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.\r\nBenedicta tu in mulieribus,\r\net benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.\r\nSancta Maria, Mater Dei,\r\nora pro nobis peccatoribus,\r\nnunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nHail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.\r\nBlessed art thou among women,\r\nand blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.\r\nHoly Mary, Mother of God,\r\npray for us sinners,\r\nnow and in the hour of our death. Amen.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe topic of translation brings up interesting problems. If the singer is not familiar with the foreign language, how does he or she know the meaning of each word, and how to pronounce the text? To answer the first question, common songs have word for word translations. This is usually different from the English translation given in sheet music. The reason is when an English translation is set to music, it has to make logistical sense, so some words are rearranged or changed to fit the music and language. Consider the word for word translation for\u00a0Ave Maria<\/i>:\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nAve Maria\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hail Mary\r\n\r\ngratia plena\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[with] grace filled\r\n\r\nDominus tecum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the Lord [is] with you\r\n\r\nBenedicta tu\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Blessed [are] you\r\n\r\nEt benedictus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And blessed\r\n\r\nFructus ventris tui.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Is] the fruit of the womb of you.\r\n\r\nSancta Maria\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Holy Mary\r\n\r\nMater Dei\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mother of God\r\n\r\nOra pro nobis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pray for us\r\n\r\nPeccatoribus\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sinners\r\n\r\nNunc et in\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Now and in\r\n\r\nHora mortis nostrae.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The hour of the death of us.<\/i>\r\n\r\n\u00a0<\/i>\r\n\r\nAlthough some of the text corresponds with the first translation, some are \u201cout of order\u201d in the English. The importance of this is for the rule of text emphasis. How can a singer know which word is most important if he or she does not know what the words mean? Some singers will sing songs in a foreign language without knowing any of the meaning. How can the singer tell the story without knowing the meaning of the text? Even a general knowledge of meaning is better than none in order to tell the story. This relates to the second question of pronunciation. If a singer knows meaning, but does not know the correct pronunciation, the story is incomplete. An audience member may know the language, and will be confused if words are mispronounced. In some languages, inflection of words changes entire meanings. How can an inexperienced singer be expected to know pronunciation of multiple languages, some of which do not use the same alphabet? The answer lies in another language, the International Phonetic Alphabet.\r\n\r\nThe International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA for short, was created to serve as a pronunciation key to any language. You may have seen it before in a dictionary (the schwa, or \u201c\u0259,\u201d is most prominent). If a singer is familiar with the IPA, and researches the corresponding IPA to whatever text is sung, no other pronunciation aide is needed. Essentially, the IPA is a collection of symbols denoted by brackets (ex. [a] ) in which each symbol is a distinct sound. Although many of the symbols look like alphabet characters, it should not be assumed the symbol sounds exactly like the letter. An example would be the English words \u201ccat\u201d and \u201ccent.\u201d The \u201cc\u201d in each word sounds different, the first like a \u201ck\u201d sound and the second an \u201cs\u201d sound. The IPA for \u201ccat\u201d would be [kat] and \u201ccent\u201d would be [sent]. Another example involves the vowels in the English language. Although there are 5 vowels (\u201cy\u201d not included), there are 23 vowel sounds. American English in particular is a difficult language for IPA due to the variety of pronunciations \u00a0(people from Rochester pronounce words differently than those in the south). There are a great many details on each sound, and the verbiage on websites about IPA can be confusing (see\u00a0http:\/\/www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org\/ipa-sounds\/ipa-chart-with-sounds\/<\/a>\u00a0). The simple explanation returns to the articulators (tongue, teeth, and lips) and what are known as\u00a0voiced<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0unvoiced<\/i>\u00a0sounds.\r\n\r\nA voiced sound occurs when the vocal cords vibrate during the creation of the sound, or phonating. Place your hand on your neck by your vocal cords, and slowly say the letter \u201cz.\u201d You will notice the vocal cords vibrating. Now say the letter \u201cs\u201d (just like the beginning of the word \u201csnake.\u201d This is a unvoiced sound because the vocal cords do not vibrate. Notice that when you created both sounds, your tongue moved to the roof of your mouth in the same location. One other example are the letters \u201cb\u201d and \u201cp.\u201d Closing the lips and exploding air create both, but the first is voiced and the second unvoiced. Every sound is the combination of articulators and voiced or unvoiced sounds. All vowels essentially are voiced sounds with little movement of the articulators.\r\n\r\nWhen we sing, the majority of the sound occurs on the vowel. The time spent on the consonants is important to understand the words, but the vowels allow for musical expression. One important aspect of vowel creation that is problematic in singing English is singing two vowels together, also known as a diphthong. Diphthongs are prominent in many words, and go unnoticed to the untrained ear. An example of a diphthong is the word \u201cwide.\u201d The vowel sound is both \u201cah\u201d and \u201cih.\u201d Generally, the rule is to elongate the first vowel, and sing the second vowel short. In some dialects, such is Irish, the same word would be sung in the reverse, singing \u201cah\u201d short and \u201cih\u201d long.\r\n\r\nLatin pronunciation of vowels is the purest form (unlike many English vowels which have some level of a diphthong sound). This chart will assist in visualizing Latin IPA and the corresponding sounds:\u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Help:IPA_for_Latin<\/a>\u00a0. The classical Latin is widely accepted for singing. I would recommend using the text of\u00a0Ave Maria<\/i>, and writing out the IPA on a separate sheet of paper to visualize the symbols and their corresponding sounds.\r\n\r\nIf a singer familiarizes him or herself with the IPA, he or she can sing in any language without fear of mispronunciation of the text. The telling of the story preserves its authenticity, and can also serve as a doorway into many music cultures throughout the world.\r\n