Christopher M. Mislow wrote:
>
> I have two questions concerning the medieval hymn to St. John Baptist from
> which Guido of Arezzo is credited (ca. 1040) with having developed the
> musical DO-RE-MI, etc. musical notation from the first syllable of each
> hemistich ("ut" became "DO"; "RE" from "resonare"; "MI" from "mira"; and so
> on). My two questions are these:
>
> First, I have found two versions. The most common is
>
> Ut queant laxis resonare fibris
> Mira gestorum famuli tuorum,
> Solve polluti labii reatum,
> Sancte Ioannes.
>
> However, in "The Age of Faith" (Simon & Schuster 1950) by Will Durant, at
> p. 898, there appears a version where the last word in line 1 ("fibris") is
> rendered instead "floris." Is this a typographical error or do two
> versions exist?
>
> Second, can anyone steer me to (or provide) a faithful and fairly literal
> translation into English? Alas, more than three decades of desuetude have
> rendered my Latin less than serviceable. I can reconstruct most of the
> text -- with Latin dictionary in hand -- from which the overall sense is
> evident, but holes remain. (I have seen a few translations, but these
> translations, in an apparent effort to capture the spirit and convey the
> flavor of the original, have taken unjustified liberties with the actual
> text.)
>
> Thank-you in advance.
>
> --Christopher
<Well, I did it again. I meant to say: "I did not see the debated words
('laxis...fibris or floris') in the translation cited by the sapientes
of the list. I do not know about two versions, but 'floris' does not
make sense, so here is my attempt: 'That thy servants may resound deep
in their weary hearts the wonders of thy deeds, remit, Saint John, the
sins of their stained lips." After all, singing in this hymn is not
simply a musical production, but a call to repentance, well in keeping
with the character of St. John the Baptist. Cheers, Luciana
--
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Luciana Cuppo Csaki
Societas internationalis pro Vivario
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.geocities.com/athens/aegean/9891/
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