Richard Pennycuick wrote:

>I didn't study Latin at school but nonetheless, it seems strange that
>there are so many variants.

Depending upon what country you studied it in and also (if you studied
it in the US), whether it was in a public or parochial school.  It makes
for occasional double takes from listeners to settings of the Mass or
other religious texts like the Requiem (also a mass) and Stabat Mater
and Bach's Magnificat, for example.

>Incidentally, I was delighted a year or so ago to discover a Rhino CD
>(8122-72776-2) containing 28 Lehrer songs: there must be other fans of
>his on the list.  My only regret is the absence of "The Vatican Rag."

There's a 3-CD album by Archives (Reprise R2 79831), which I may have
gotten from Berkshire, containg many if not all of TL's songs, many
more than once.  The Vatican Rag, appears only on the third disk.

wm