Music Linked Translation: The History Of German Music-Linked Translation
2. MUSIC-LINKED TRANSLATION
The production of music-linked translation refers to translating a music-linked verbal text of source language into a music-linked verbal text in a target language, keeping the music unaffected. In this regard producing music-linked translation is more sophisticated than composing new music, since the former has to address itself both to the music and to the source text (Golomb 2005, 126- 127).
In regard to the history of German music-linked translation, one of the first known music- linked translations in German is the Latin Sequence of the midnight mass for Christmas “Lovet sistu Ihesu Crist” (Lat. “Grates nunc omnes”, Eng. “Praise be to You, Jesus Christ”). It was first found in manuscript in the late 14th …show more content…
In common practice, it is aimed to preserve the phonemes (cf. Low 2008, 13; Golomb 2005, 127). In every language, there are two basic classes of phonemes: vowels and consonants (Girdenis 2014, 113). Golomb (2005, 127) notes that the maximum preservation of phonemes is often impossible due to the differences of languages. Thus, when analysing the characteristics of singability it is helpful to find out whether a particular language is vowel-oriented or consonant-oriented (Cheek 2014, 4). English, German and Lithuanian rate of consonants usage is relatively high, which respectively takes 62%, 60%, and 54,5% (Horiguti 1964, 238; Kazlauskienė and Raškinis 2009, 171). Unlike the English and German languages, Lithuanian is considered to be a pitch language where differently stressed long vocalic segments (diphthongs, long vowels, and sequences of vowel plus sonorant) influence the meaning although words are orthographically the same (Holvoet 2011, 5).
Since vowels are very crucial regarding singability (Davis 1985, 206), the translator should carefully select vowel containing words and at the same time keep in mind other musical elements. Hence, the choice of adequate words or equivalents does not refer only to full equivalence on vowel level both in source and target lyrics. The lyrics must first comply with “the needs of the
The production of music-linked translation refers to translating a music-linked verbal text of source language into a music-linked verbal text in a target language, keeping the music unaffected. In this regard producing music-linked translation is more sophisticated than composing new music, since the former has to address itself both to the music and to the source text (Golomb 2005, 126- 127).
In regard to the history of German music-linked translation, one of the first known music- linked translations in German is the Latin Sequence of the midnight mass for Christmas “Lovet sistu Ihesu Crist” (Lat. “Grates nunc omnes”, Eng. “Praise be to You, Jesus Christ”). It was first found in manuscript in the late 14th …show more content…
In common practice, it is aimed to preserve the phonemes (cf. Low 2008, 13; Golomb 2005, 127). In every language, there are two basic classes of phonemes: vowels and consonants (Girdenis 2014, 113). Golomb (2005, 127) notes that the maximum preservation of phonemes is often impossible due to the differences of languages. Thus, when analysing the characteristics of singability it is helpful to find out whether a particular language is vowel-oriented or consonant-oriented (Cheek 2014, 4). English, German and Lithuanian rate of consonants usage is relatively high, which respectively takes 62%, 60%, and 54,5% (Horiguti 1964, 238; Kazlauskienė and Raškinis 2009, 171). Unlike the English and German languages, Lithuanian is considered to be a pitch language where differently stressed long vocalic segments (diphthongs, long vowels, and sequences of vowel plus sonorant) influence the meaning although words are orthographically the same (Holvoet 2011, 5).
Since vowels are very crucial regarding singability (Davis 1985, 206), the translator should carefully select vowel containing words and at the same time keep in mind other musical elements. Hence, the choice of adequate words or equivalents does not refer only to full equivalence on vowel level both in source and target lyrics. The lyrics must first comply with “the needs of the