Music 263/264: Lyric Diction
Research Guide for Lyric Diction
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Research and Instruction Librarian for Music & Fine Arts
Karen Olson
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IPA Source
Your go-to resource for diction questions is IPA Source.
- IPA Source This link opens in a new windowInternational Phonetic Alphabet transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias, art songs, and Latin sacred texts.
Dictionaries
Cassell's Latin DictionaryCall Number: Music Ref: PA2365.E58 C3 1968Available in print or online.
Includes pronunciation guides for Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin.
Pocket Oxford Latin DictionaryAvailable online.
Resources About Diction
Books about diction are filed under call numbers beginning MT883. Here are some recommended books about Latin diction.
Diction for Singers: A Concise Reference for English, Italian, Latin, German, French, and Spanish PronunciationCall Number: Music Ref: MT883 .W35 2012Available in print.
Singing Early Music: The Pronunciation of European Languages in the Late Middle Ages and RenaissanceCall Number: MT883 .S56 1996Available in print.
The Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet in the Choral RehearsalCall Number: MT875 .U74 2012Available online. Includes chapters on a wide variety of global languages.
Online Resources
- Alphabetical Listing of Latin SpellingsFrom IPASource; includes IPA. Focuses on ecclesiastical pronunciation.
- Ecclesiastical Latin PronunciationFrom CanticaNOVA Publciations (a Catholic church music publisher). For those who like their pronunciation guides in chart form. Does not use IPA.
- Pronouncing Church LatinSupplement from Seaton, Douglass. Ideas and Styles in the Western Musical Tradition. 4th ed, Oxford University Press, 2016. For those who like their pronunciation guides in list form. Does not use IPA.
- Pronouncing LatinFrom Loyola University Chicago; focuses on Classical pronunciation; does not use IPA.