Else Kramer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>... It is these texts [Britten's Sacred and Profane], from
>Davies' 'Medieval English Lyrics: a Critical Anthology' which have
>prompted a question regarding pronunciation.  How does one pronounce
>'middle/medieval English'? Are there any handbooks on this which people
>can recommend?

The score of 'Sacred and Profane' contains a note on pronounciation
at the beginning, and a 'phonetic' transcription of the text under the
original words.  This I found highly necessary when I performed the work,
because the texts are pre-Great Vowel Shift (something I always think of
as a geographical feature, like the Great Barrier Reef or the Great Rift
Valley), not to mention before other changes and modern pronounciation is
way off!  And a lot of the vocabulary is alien too, even if like me you are
well read in English of Shakespeare onwards.  Knowing some German helps.

>The above reminded me that I have long desired to be able to read the
>Canterbury Tales in the right 'language', which prompts another question:
>is there any music based on/inspired by the Canterbury Tales?

There is George Dyson's 'Canterbury Pilgrims', a work for choir soloists
and orchestra, recently recorded I think by Richard Hickox.

Virginia Knight
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Personal homepage: http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/~ggvhk/virginia.html