Composed by Jan Novak
Vocals by Voces Latinae

Description

Jan Nov?k (1921-1984), who is part of the Moravain music tradition represented by composers like Leos Janacek and Bohuslav Martinu, set to music secular Latin authors of antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. His work is based on the syllable quantities of the Latin language. Nov?k brings the rhythm of Latin alive in a very distinctive way.

A cassette with musical arrangement of:

• Catullus (34)
• Catullus (5)
• Catullus (61)
• Horace (Carm. 1, 22)
• Horace (Carm. 1,2)
• Horace (epod. 15)
• Gaudeamus Igitur, Anth. Lat. (388)
• Caesar (BG 1, 1-3)
• Carmina Burana (142)
• Carmina Burana (85)
• Martial (10,62)
• Phaedrus (1,13)

The cassette is accompanied by a libretto with original Latin text and English translation on facing pages. Music score also available.

Comments and Reviews

Jan Novak was a serious composer who set a bunch of Latin poetry to music during his career. In this collection there are three songs by Catullus (34, 61, 5), plus some by Horace, Martial, Phaedrus, the Latin Anthology, and, as Ginny mentioned, Caesar. They're sung by a chorus of children accompanied by piano and percussion. The neat thing is that Novak respects the Latin quatities: long syllables get longer notes than shorter ones. Some of the tunes are quite catchy. Bolchazy-Carducci offers the sheet music, which might be usefull if you wanted to perform at an assembly of whatever. The piano accompaniments are non-trivial but probably within the reach of a good high school pianist.

—Anne Mahoney
Schola Cantans

Although the name of the Choir, Voces Latinae, sounds ancient, the voices themselves are obviously young and fresh, sometimes disarmingly bold and prone to parody. Thus, if there were any doubts as to whether the enterprise of setting secular Latin texts to (pop) music and performing them is worthwhile, these will be quickly dispelled.

—Werner Schubert
Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Listening to the songs on the tape enhances teaching and can make translating even the most mundane of Caesar's commentaries fun... Experience has led me to believe that students never forget the words of Gaudeamus igitur (nor the subjunctive as it is used there), that they enjoy and better understand a Catullus poem (and appreciate the lyrical aspect) if they listen to the poem being sung, and that once school-children sing along with the fine marching rhythm of Gallia est omnis divisa they are less intimidated by what they perceive as the daunting task of translating it.

—Alta Schoeman
University of Stellenbosch
Scholia Reviews