Choral titles for Lower voices sampler

39
Pronunciation Guide
Tagalog is the major language of the Philippines and is the basis of the national
language, Filipino (also called Pilipino). It is in the Malayo-Polynesian family
of languages, related to Indonesian. It is easy to pronounce since its spellings
are phonetic, with pronunciation similar to Italian and Spanish. Apostrophes
do not affect pronunciation.
Vowels
a as in “father”
e as in “weigh,” but without a diphthong
i as in “police”
o as in “for”
u as in “rude”
aw similar to the ow in “now”
ay similar to the y in “my”
Consonants
g always hard, as in “go”
k, p, and t unaspirated; k is between the sounds of k and g, p is between
the sounds of p and b, and t is between the sounds of t and d
ng as in “singer”; when ng appears as a whole word (m. 9, bass 1;
m. 59, all voices) it is pronounced as if it were spelled nang*
r slightly rolled
for online perusal only
*Mga is another exception. As it is pronounced manga, it is spelled out with
two syllables in the score (m. 4, tenor 1; m. 5, bass 2, and elsewhere). When
the text to Pandangguhan is typed as poetry, however—that is, without
music—manga should appear as mga.
Levi Celerio (1910–2002) was named a Filipino National Artist in both
music and literature. He was best known as a prolific lyricist with 4,000
songs, including many lyrics added to folk tunes, and as a composer of music
for films. He was a co-founder of FILSCAP, the Filipino Society of
Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
Nina Gilbert, arranger, is Director of Choral Activities at Lafayette College
in Easton, Pennsylvania. Her musical background ranges from Kenya, East
Africa, where she translated Schubert’s Mass in G into Swahili while serving
as a Peace Corps volunteer (1978–80); to New York, where she served as
associate conductor of the New York Choral Society, working in Carnegie
Hall and Lincoln Center (1995–96). She has about twenty-five choral
arrangements and editions in print, and is active as a writer, editor, speaker,
guest conductor, and clinician.