Why Offer Translations?

One result of the increase in choice and availability of vocal music to a widening cross-section of the nineteenth-century English-speaking public was the desire for English translations of vocal texts. It was hardly surprising, therefore, that publishers in England and elsewhere sought to capitalize on this, equipping vocal music composed with foreign-language texts (including Latin) with English singing texts or (less commonly) English prose or poetic paraphrases. The spate of activity in this field of publishing is remarkable, not only for its diversity, but for its ingenuity, resourcefulness, and sometimes even for its audacity in modifying, broadening, or subverting the intent or purpose of the music as it originally stood. The comparatively lowly status accorded to translated texts, and by extension to the music which has become their vehicle, is perhaps a symptom of an attitude entrenched in the approach of music historians: if a piece of music is a hybrid, for example of French origin but with an English text substituted for the French one, then it cannot be a complete musical entity. It is therefore perhaps worthy of notice, but hardly of detailed consideration. This raises questions about how concepts such as plagiarism, arrangement (in the musical sense), and authenticity have been viewed in the past, how these views have changed, and how they affect present-day judgements of musical value. The fact remains that translation of vocal texts, particularly when associated with increasing ease of access to relatively cheap printed music as the nineteenth century progressed, brought vocal music within the reach and relative understanding of several times the number of listeners and performers than would have been the case had the sung texts remained in their original languages only. Whether or not this was a good thing is a separate issue, though perhaps some of the examples to be cited may raise questions in the minds of those who take a particular stance on the concepts cited above.