How to Prepare the Printed Program

The last step in preparing for a recital is submitting the program with program notes, texts, and translations. The research that was done to prepare the songs for performance can serve as the basis for program notes. The program itself needs to be clear and informative.

This book is an excellent style manual for both program and notes.

Holoman, D. Kern.

"The Printed Program." Chap. 6 in Writing About Music: A Style Sheet from the Editors of 19th-Century Music, p. 47-54. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Ref. ML63.W68 1988

It is customary to provide the text of the songs in the original language with an English translation. The quality of translations varies greatly. Singing translations that appear in the music itself frequently have to sacrifice meaning to fit the rhythm of the melodic line. Word-by-word translations let singers know the exact meaining of each word they are singing so that they will interpret the music correctly, but these translations should never be used for the program. A good translation attempts to follow the meaning of the original text as closely as possible and may also attempt to preserve the meter and rhyme scheme of poetical works. Many sound recordings contain texts and translations as part of their notes. This is an excellent source for less well-known works.

The library also has books of translations for songs of the standard repertory and for songs of individual composers. These works can be found under call numbers ML47-ML54.8 and under the subject headings qualified by language and subdivided by the word, "Texts." For example,

Songs, English--Texts

Songs, French--Texts

Songs, German--Texts

Collections of song texts and translations of songs by individual composers can be found by searching on the name of the composer followed by the uniform title, "Songs. Texts," for example:

Debussy, Claude, 1862-1918. Songs. Texts

Schubert, Franz, 1797-1828. Songs. Texts

Wolf, Hugo, 1860-1903. Songs. Texts

Here are a few examples of anthologies of songs texts with translations:

The Aria Database

http://www.aria-database.com

"The Aria Database is a searchable reference guide to arias by name, opera, language, and voice type including word-by-word translations into English, libretti, and MIDI files for many of the arias. The Database includes the complete set of operatic arias of Mozart and Verdi as well as many others. ... Discography of many arias is now provided with an option to purchase the recordings on-line!" (22 April 1998)

Coffin, Berton, Werner Singer, and Pierre Delattre, eds.

Word-By-Word Translations of Songs and Arias. New York: Scarecrow Press, 1966-72. Ref ML54.6.W65

Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich, ed.

The Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder. Translated by George Bird and Richard Stokes. New York: Knopf, 1977. Ref ML54.6.F5 T43

The Lied and Song Texts Page

http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/

"This site houses an extensive archive of texts to Kunstlieder and art songs of many different languages." (Introduction) The number of translations are generally the work of Emily Ezust, complier of the page.

Musicals Dot Net

http://www.musicals.net

Includes lists of songs, lyrics and other information related to musicals.

Miller, Philip Lieson, ed.

The Ring of Words: An anthology of Song Texts. New York: W.W. Norton, 1973. Ref ML54.6.M5 R5 1973