minstrel: Deo Gracias was music participation advice?

[Patricia Yarrow]

Just a note:  a final "e" followed by an initial vowel is elided (which
eventually led to our silent final "e").   (You did this on your phonetic
version between "grace and" but not between "Wherfore Englonde.")  It's
debatable whether the final "e" should be elided before a glide ("w" or
"y"); I generally do.

Vivien

-----Original Message-----
From: minstrel-admin at pbm.com [mailto:minstrel-admin at pbm.com]On Behalf Of
L Joseph
Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2002 11:25 PM
To: minstrel at pbm.com
Subject: Re: minstrel: Deo Gracias was music participation advice?



--- Terri Spencer <tarats at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Umm...how does "Deo Gracias Anglia" sound in 15th
> century dialect?

If I've been doing it right, like I have a REALLY
weird accent. ;->

Dover has reprinted "An Anthology of English Medieval
and Renaissance Vocal Music" edited by Noah Greenberg,
which has "Deo Gracias Anglia" in period English.
(It's about $10 on Amazon.com and worth owning for all
the other good stuff in it too!) Any edition of "The
Canterbury Tales" which has the text in Middle English
should also have a section on how it is believed to be
pronounced.

The first verse looks like this:
"Owre kynge went forth to Normandy/With grace and
myght of chyvalry;/Ther God for hym wrought
mervelusly;/Wherfore Englonde may calle and cry,/Deo
Gracias Anglia."

Pronounce every consonant, roll all r's, and your
vowel sounds are mostly Latinate. E's at the end of
words are pronounced. Ch is as in "church." Gh is as
in "Ach" in German, so you get something sort of like
this:

"Oorr king-uh wend foorth toh Nohrmahndee/With grahss
and meecht of chivahlree. Then Gohd fohr hem roht
mehrvelooslee,/Wherefor-uh Englohnd-uh my call und
cree." Suddenly "chivalry" and "cry" rhyme properly.

> Can you point me to a phonetic writing?  Our group
> sings it in 20th c dialect.
Tell me if the above makes sense to you first. If it
does, I'll try to write the rest of the verses out for
you phonetically.

Jehanne de Wodeford