Guide to the ltalian pronunciation of Verdi’s ‘Pater Noster’
This is a short pronunciation guide for the Italian words we’re going to sing. All of the examples below come from the ‘Pater Noster’.
In Italian, unlike English, once you’ve heard the sound of a vowel or consonant, or particular combinations of letters, that’s it: the sound always stays the same. In Italy, you would not find a city where Woughton, Loughton and Broughton, though spelt the same, are all pronounced differently.
If you wish you can pause the recording at any time and repeat the words to practise individual sounds.
Vowels
First, the vowels: the Italian alphabet contains the same five vowels as the English alphabet. They are quite pure and open sounds.
a, e, i, o, u
Combinations of vowels
i) within words
Two or more vowels can combine within a word. A few examples from the piece are given here.
Listen to the examples:
ai stai fai
ia (if accented) sia (unaccented) faccia perdoniam grazia
ie cieli pien
io (if ‘o’ is accented) ciò (if ‘o’ is unaccented) rio
oi noi
ua tua guardi
ue sue
uo tuo
ii) running vowels together
Because so many words end and begin with vowel sounds in Italian, very often words are run together as if they were one longer word. You’ll notice this in the Verdi when the end of one word and the start of the next are set to one crotchet, for instance.
Listen to the examples:
sempre il becomes sempreil
avvenga il becomes avvengail
questa orazion becomes questaorazion
siccome in cielo, in terra, in unione becomes siccomein cieloin terrain unione
If you find this difficult, it might be easier to ignore the first vowel and concentrate on getting to the second one: that is, to think of it as sempr’il; avveng’il; quest’orazion etc.
Consonants
Now on to consonants. The pronunciation is generally similar to that of English consonants, so I’ll concentrate on those Italian consonants that differ from their English counterparts.
T, D, P
No air should escape when pronouncing these consonants. For ‘t’ place the tip of the tongue behind your front teeth. No part of your tongue should be in contact with the roof of your mouth. For a ‘d’ sound, do the same, but move the tip of the tongue back slightly to touch the front of the roof of your mouth. A ‘p’ is formed as in English, but without the air! When practising these consonants, put your hand in front of your mouth – the more air you can feel, the less Italian you sound.
Listen to the examples:
tuo padre
santificato laude
di pone
terra piaccia
perdoni peccati
C
The letter ‘c’ combines with the vowels ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘u’ to make a hard sound, as in the English coconut. This is also the case when ‘c’ is followed by an ‘h’ – be careful, this one often trips people up.
Listen to the examples:
ca santificato
co siccome
ch che chi schiostri
‘C’ combines with the vowels ‘e’ and ‘i’ to make softer sound.
Listen to the examples:
ce
ci cieli acciò ci
G
The letter ‘g’ combines with the vowels ‘a’ and ‘o’ to make a hard sound, as in the English go. This is also the case when ‘g’ is followed by an ‘h’.
‘G’ plus ‘u’ is still hard, but makes the ‘u’ sound almost like the ‘w’ in the English well.
A ‘g’ combined with ‘i’ makes a softer sound.
'Gn' is another combination of letters to be careful of. The ‘g’ is not sounded as such – it is better to think of ‘gn’ as a combination of letters which have the same sound as the ‘ni’ in the English onion.
Listen to the examples:
ga avvenga
gu guardia
gi oggi
gh preghiam
gn regno ognun ogni vegniam signor
Double consonants
If there are two consonants in a word then it is intended that two are pronounced. Not always easy to do, especially when singing, but worth a try.
Listen to the examples:
siccome avvenga
R
Roll them as much as you can, especially when there’s two of them!
Listen to the examples:
nostro sempre grazia terra
Z
A ‘z’ in Italian is like a ‘ts’ in English. Think of pizza!
Listen to the examples:
orazion devozione
On the last part of the recording I’ve read the text in full and then read it again, this time separated into the syllables as set out in the music.
RMcC January 2001 Transcribed April 2014
PATER NOSTER – Text as set by Verdi, 1880
O padre nostro, che ne’ cieli stai, O our father, who art in heaven,
Santificato sia sempre il tuo nome, Hallowed be thy name always,
E laude e grazia di ciò che ci fai. And praise and thanks be for everything that thou doest.
Avvenga il regno tuo, siccome pone Thy kingdom come, as this prayer entreats:
Questa orazion: tua volontà si faccia, Thy will be done,
Siccome in cielo, in terra in unione. On earth, as it is in heaven.
Padre, dà oggi a noi pane, e ti piaccia Father, give us this day our daily bread,
Che ne perdoni il peccati nostri; And may it please thee to forgive us our sins:
Nè cosa noi facciam che ti dispiaccia. And let us not do anything that displeases thee.
E che noi perdoniam, tu ti dimostri And in order that we may forgive, thou makest thyself
Esempio a noi per la tua gran virtute; An example to us through thy great goodness;
Acciò dal rio nemico ognun si schiostri. So that we can all escape from the cruel enemy.
Divino Padre, pien d'ogni salute, Heavenly Father, fount of all salvation,
Ancor ci guarda dalla tentazione Keep us always from temptation,
Dell’ infernal nemico e sue ferute. From the satanic enemy and his onslaughts.
Si che a te facciamo orazione, As we pray to thee
Che meritiam tua grazia, e il regno vostro That we may deserve thy grace
A posseder vegniam con divozione. And that we may devoutly enter into thy kingdom,
Preghiamti, re di gloria e signor nostro, We beg thee, King of Glory and our Lord,
Che tu ci guardi da dolore: e fitto To preserve us from sorrow: and we have
La mente abbiamo in te, col volto prostro. Our minds fixed on thee, with head lowered.
Amen. Amen.
Attributed to Dante: (Literal translation
based on Purgatorio, XI. 1–24 from OUP edition)
Italian pronunciation guide_2014
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