rehearsal rant

okay, so we started Carmina Burana rehearsals tonight. we did this at the end of last season (um, may?) we'll be singing this one at Carnegie Hall with the Dallas Symphony. Same conductor, different place. after tonight's rehearsal it seems like they looked at it and went, "hmmmm, we're doing this again, but in New York, so lets make it as freakishly different as we can!" the main thing is the pronunciation particularly "e"s for example:

"Verum est quod legitur"
was previously pronounced [vErum Est kvod lEgitur]
now is [virum Est kvod ligitur]

I'm exagerating a bit. technically it's a closed e sound (sounds like "ay"), but choirs usually cheat and just use [i] (sounds like "ee" like in cheese.)


all S's at the beginning of words are [z]
and h's are now pronounced
and they've also thrown in schwa's just for fun.

Normal latin, you don't use schwa's. don't pronounce h's. "ce" sounds like "chay" instead of [tsi]

Somehow I don't think Orff was that concerned with the text being pronounced in correct "ancient germanic latin" else he would have left some notes to that effect. but what do i know, i'm not the one with the advanced degree, makin' the big bucks conducting.