Elvis songs in Latin???
John Guscott
I'm not sure if this is the right group to ask, but it's worth a try -
I recently saw on the news a CD that has Elvis songs sung in Latin. Does
anyone know who the artist is?
Thanks!
JOhn
--
John Patrick Guscott
dk...@cleveland.freenet.edu
z
Mari L J Voipio
: I'm not sure if this is the right group to ask, but it's worth a try -
: I recently saw on the news a CD that has Elvis songs sung in Latin. Does
: anyone know who the artist is?
He's Jukka Ammondt, Latin teacher in the Jyväskylä University in
Finland. He has earlier sung tangos in Latin, but both CD:s seem to be
difficult to get even here in Finland. I've heard a couple of the Elvis
songs in the radio and they're not bad at all!
Mari Voipio
B. Robert Helm
> I'm not sure if this is the right group to ask, but it's worth a try -
> I recently saw on the news a CD that has Elvis songs sung in Latin. Does
> anyone know who the artist is?
See question 5, below.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elvis in Latin: Frequently Asked Questions
===========================================
[Last update March 29, 1995. The most recent version of this FAQ
list resides at:
http://www.cs.uoregon.edu/~bhelm/misc/elvis.html
It is also available by e-mail from the maintainer at the address
below. Please contact the maintainer with any information regarding
these artists or their CD's, especially price, availability, and live
performances.
Changes: additional information under question 3 (obtaining the CD's),
added question 4 (reviews) and 5 (biographical information on the
artists).]
1. Is it true that someone made a CD of Elvis songs in Latin?
The Associated Press news agency, among others, recently reported that
Doctor Jukka Ammondt and the Finnish Broadcast Corporation Choir
released a compact disk of songs by Elvis Presley in Latin. The
article said that Doctor Ammondt had also made an earlier CD of
tangos, also in Latin. Since that news article appeared, several
persons have sent messages to the Internet LATIN-L mailing list, and
to the Internet newsgroup sci.classics, asking to buy one or both of
these CD's.
The relevant information appears below. Please contact the maintainer
of this FAQ at the address below with any information you get
regarding prices, availability, live performances, etc.
2. What are the titles of the CD's?
Doctor Ammondt, Tango Triste Finnicum, 1993.
Contains six (6) Finnish traditional tangos in Latin.
Doctor Ammondt, The Legend Lives Forever in Latin, 1995.
Contains seven (7) songs in Latin, six of them made known by Elvis
Presley and one with lyrics by the singer.
3. Where do I get the CD's?
K-TEL INTERNATIONAL will be distributing the CD's in Europe and the
U. S. Contact K-TEL's offices in your country for further information.
In the US: K-TEL's US offices are currently awaiting their evaluation
copy. If the CD passes its evaluation, it will at least June 1995
before it appears in stores. K-TEL US may also decide to make it an
"import item", available by mail order. A decision will be made by the
end of May. KTEL's US sales office number is (612) 559-6800.
[Information sought for other countries]
To order from Finland, write, call, or fax:
ViihdeSallap, Ltd. / Stop Records
P.O. Box 252
SF-40101 Jyva"skyla"
Finland
Ph: +358 41-666-771
Fx: +358 41-666-773
The CD's identification is: CD #SR-103.
Gary Toops reported:
I was not provided with information of forms of payment the recording
company in Jyva"skyla", Finland, is able to accept. I would assume
that a mere credit card number (e.g., Visa, Mastercard) would suffice
to purchase one of these CDs, the price of which, according to the
customs label on the envelope in which mine was mailed, is 90 Finnish
markka, apparently $21.10.
4. So, what kind of reviews have they gotten?
About the Elvis CD, Gary Toops reported to the LINGUIST list:
Having listened to the CD several times now, I am very favorably
impressed both by the quality of the lyrics and by the quality of the
instrumentation. Most North American instructors of Latin, I believe,
will be pleased to learn that the pronunciation used by the vocalist,
Dr. (Jukka) Ammondt, is virtually identical to the reconstructed
"classic" pronunciation taught in North American schools and not that
of Church Latin. /c/ and /g/ are regularly pronounced as velars and
are not palatalized or "softened" to -ch- and -dzh- before front
vowels as they are in (Italian) Church Latin. Practically the only
deviation from North American classroom pronunciation is the monoph-
thongization of -ae- and -oe-, which Ammondt pronounces as long /e:/
(or even /a"/), rather than as /ai/ and /oi/, resp. V- is regularly
pronounced as a bilabial glide /w/, although at times it approaches a
bilabial fricative in Ammond's pronounciation; the same holds true of
the glide element in -qu. Ammondt occasionally produces a slightly
retroflex-sounding /s/, but, in any case, it is never voiced to /z/
even intervocalically. I was able to discern only one instance of
Finnish interference in Ammondt's pronunciation: in one song, one
occurrence of the word "dic" is clearly mispronounced /tik/.
The CD contains 7 tracks totaling 21 mins. 46 secs.:
o I. Surrender / Nunc aeternitatis
o II. It's Now or Never / Nunc hic aut numquam
o III. Can't Help Falling in Love / Non adamare non possum
o IV. It's Impossible / Impossibile
o V. Wooden Heart / Cor ligneum
o VI. Love Me Tender / Tenere me ama
o VII. The Wings of Dream / Alae somnii
The last track (VII., above) is sung mostly in strongly accented
English. It might have been better to keep the lyrics all in Latin.
5. Who are the artists?
Doctor Ammondt is a professor in the literature department of the
University of Jyvska"la".
According to Hannele Dufva of the Language Centre for Finnish
Universities at the University of Jyvska"la":
The lyrics were, by the way, translated into Latin by Teivas Oksala,
the professor of the Latin department, also famous for his broadcasts
of news in Latin. I heard that he is also going to try his talents as
sports commentator in Latin (!) at an ice hockey match.
6. Where can I hear a live performance?
No tour dates have been announced :-)
Maintainer
========================================================================
B. Robert HELM Email: bh...@cs.uoregon.edu
Department of Computer Science URL: http://www.cs.uoregon.edu/~bhelm
University of Oregon Tel: +01 (503) 346-4426
Eugene, OR 97403 (U. S. A.)
Jorma Kyppo
> John Guscott (dk...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu) wrote:
> > I'm not sure if this is the right group to ask, but it's worth a try -
> > I recently saw on the news a CD that has Elvis songs sung in Latin. Does
> > anyone know who the artist is?
>
> See question 5, below.
> 5. Who are the artists?
>
> Doctor Ammondt is a professor in the literature department of the
> University of Jyvska"la".
>
> According to Hannele Dufva of the Language Centre for Finnish
> Universities at the University of Jyvska"la":
>
> The lyrics were, by the way, translated into Latin by Teivas Oksala,
> the professor of the Latin department, also famous for his broadcasts
> of news in Latin. I heard that he is also going to try his talents as
> sports commentator in Latin (!) at an ice hockey match.
Latin is because of some unknown reason made recently quite well in
Finland. The News in Latin in Finnish radio "Nuntii Latinii" have
been continued already for some years. I think, that the hockey match failed
in this year, yet.
Professor Ammondt (who used to live in same county, here in Laukaa)
has also recorded Finnish tangos in Finnish and Latin. The Finnish
tango is a bit different the original tango from Argentina. It is
a bit melanchlolic, like combination of tango and Russian folksong.
Jorma Kyppo
Laukaa, Finland
jo...@jytko.jyu.fi
Coemgenus
publishing their translation choices for modern terms, events, and
processes? I presume it's impossible to produce the programs without
running into problems along those lines. Sharing the translations for
things like "computers," "fiber optics," "genetics" and so on could be
quite helpful. The internet, moreover, would be the ideal place to do
that.
I know the Vatican has been creating Ciceronian translations on
this line for many years, but its effort is pretty much limited to formal
papal documents.
John Rickert
I don't suppose transcripts of the broadcasts are electronically
available, are they? (For those of us too indigent/stingy to get a
shortwave radio.)
John Rickert
rick...@math.vanderbilt.edu