Digital dictionaries for translating archaic words and spellings

Credit: Greg Lindahl

Following up on the topic of an earlier post, “Working with music texts, Part 2: Translate the text,” there are times when we need to translate archaic words or spellings that have fallen out of modern usage and are nowadays only encountered in a literary context such as poetry or libretti.  Fortunately, there are quite a few websites, apps, and e-books to help with deciphering these bits of antiquated language. Note that several of them are historic dictionaries in the original language, so depending on your level of fluency, you may want to have a translation reference or tool handy for translating the definitions.

Italian

• Florio’s 1611 Italian/English Dictionary: Queen Anna’s New World of Words – You can search the dictionary online or download the entire book as a PDF file.  The smaller 1598 edition is available too.
• Zingarelli – Available for iPad/iPhone, Android, and several other mobile and desktop platforms.  A web-based version is available for a fee; the first week is free.
• Garzanti Italiano – Register for a free account to search the dictionary on the website.  Also available as an app for iPad or iPhone and for desktop platforms as a download or CD-ROM.
• Dizionario Etimologico Online – Search the dictionary online.
• Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini – Search the dictionary online.
• Archaic Italian Verb Conjugations – Not a dictionary per se, but a useful aid for translation.
• Google Books – Pre-1900 Italian dictionaries here and here (online or downloadable e-book).

French

•  A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues: Compiled by Randle Cotgrave (1611) – You can search the dictionary online or download the entire book as a PDF file.
• Dictionnaires d’autrefois: French dictionaries of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries – You can search the set of dictionaries online.
• Garzanti Francese – Register for a free account to search the dictionary on the website.  Also available as a CD-ROM.

German

N. B.: I’ve heard that for translating much of the German repertoire, one might have more success using a pre-WWII dictionary that pre-dates the spelling reforms of the mid- to late-20th century.

• Cassell’s German Dictionary – Preferably a pre-war version from the 1930s or earlier.  I couldn’t find a digital version anywhere, but I saw this recommended often enough that it deserved special mention.  Try your local used bookstore.
• Deutsches Wörterbuch (German Dictionary) by the Brothers Grimm – Free and available online at this website, at Google Books (online or e-book), and at Barnes & Noble as an e-book for NOOK devices and apps (iPad/iPhone, Android, PC, Mac).
• Google Books – Pre-1940 dictionaries here (online or downloadable e-book).
• dict.leo.org – Online German dictionary and language forums.
• dict.cc – Online English-German dictionary with user-contributed definitions; you can also ask the user community your translation questions.

English

• A Concise Dictionary of Middle English

If you have any digital resources to add to this list, let me know!

This post was inspired, and much of the information gleaned, from this discussion thread in the archives of the New Forum for Classical Singers.  A hat-tip to the folks there who share their expertise.

Related Posts:

• Working with music texts, Part 2: Translate the text

Downloads: Choral warm-ups and Vaccai

Credit: techinmusiced.wordpress.com

Chris Russell over at Technology in Music Education has posted a collection of downloadable choral warm-ups.  Special note for iPad users: As Chris mentions, you can embed the warm-ups into your presentation app (Keynote, for example) in order to mirror them to a TV, projector, or even all of the choristers’ iPads.  By the way,  Chris invites you to contribute your own choral warm-ups, in MusicXML or Finale format.

The Vaccai method books are another resource for vocal technique building that is now available online.  You can download them for free in PDF format at either free-scores.com or IMSLP, in your key of choice.

Yet another singer-friendly iPad case: The Wallee

Credit: The Wallee

The Wallee iPad case and hand strap is another addition to the lineup of singer-friendly iPad cases.  Here’s a description from the iPad/Tablet Cases & Holders for Choral Singers pinboard on Pinterest:

The Wallee iPad Case has a lock mechanism on the back that can attach to the adjustable Wallee Hand Strap or any of the desk stands or wall/dashboard mounts made by Wallee.

Related Posts:

• iPad/Tablet Cases & Holders for Choral Singers (via Pinterest)

Repurposing a picture frame easel as an inexpensive iPad/tablet stand

  

I wanted a simple and inexpensive iPad stand, and this picture frame easel fit the bill.  I didn’t need a real dock because I don’t dock it very often for video/audio output or iTunes sync, just for charging.  And I sure didn’t want to pay $30 for what is basically a glorified easel.  I like my easel because it is lightweight, inexpensive, folds flat, doesn’t scratch my desk, and unlike Apple’s dock, I can put the iPad on it in either portrait or landscape orientation.  (I made sure to get an easel that raises the iPad enough to leave space at the bottom for the dock cable and plug in portrait mode.)  Cost was about $4 at Michaels craft store.

Working with music texts, Part 2: Translate the text

Credit: The Juilliard Store

This is part 2 of the Tech tools for working with music texts series.

Step 2: Translate the text

My next step is to translate the text I’m singing. I like to do a word-for-word translation and write it into my score. If I’m short on time, or if I have difficulty translating the text myself, I’ll look for a translation from one of these sources. Some of them have literal translations, some have poetic translations, and some have both.  I generally double-check the translations I find online, as they occasionally contain mistakes.

If I’m doing the translation myself, these are the main tech tools and references I use:

• WordReference is my workhorse dictionary for French and Italian and they have many other languages as well as verb conjugations.  They have a website as well as a free iPhone app and Android app (which I use on my Android phone, and like).  No iPad-specific app, but the regular website works fine on an iPad.  The smartphone apps require an internet connection.
• I like BEOLINGUS for German (although I use WordReference for German as well).  BEOLINGUS has many useful search options as well as sound clips of word pronunciations by native speakers.  I also find it easier to stumble across idiomatic usages in BEOLINGUS.  In addition to the regular website, there is a mobile-friendly website as well as free third-party Android apps that use BEOLINGUS as the translation engine (Quickdic Offline Dictionary and Emilio’s Dictionary, both of which work offline).
• Latin is a tough one for me – I don’t know enough of how the language works to get very far doing my own word-for-word translation from reference materials.  I usually go to CPDL and hope that it’s a commonly-set text that I can look up.  Otherwise if it’s some oddball text and I have to attempt the translation myself, I’ll try these dictionaries: University of Notre Dame’s Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid, William Whitaker’s Words (mobile-friendly-ish version here), or the Latin dictionary from the Perseus Digital Library at Tufts University.
• Google Translate is a catch-all tool; copy and paste your text and watch Google do its magic.  Results are decent-to-good but occasionally wacky.  Mouse over the translated phrases to see alternate translations.  There is an Android app and and iPhone/iPad app.
• Nico Castel libretti books – the footnotes are great for untangling idiomatic or archaic usages, cultural/historic references, and similar translation challenges.
• If I end up heading to the library and hitting the stacks, these lists of printed references are helpful: Translations & Song Texts, Finding Translations and Phonetic Readings of Vocal Music Texts, Finding Translations of Vocal Music

If I got really stuck on a translation problem, another option would be to post the translation work I have done so far on a forum like ChoralNet, the New Forum for Classical Singers, or a language-learning forum and ask the community for help.

As I work, I like to type my translation into the Evernote or Dropbox document I created earlier that contains the original text.  Once my translation is done, I can write it into my score on my iPad with the forScore app’s annotation feature.  I can either use the “Draw” option and write it in freehand with my stylus (zooming in if there’s limited space to write in) or the “Type” option and type it in, adding extra spaces between words so that my word-for-word translation lines up properly with each word of the original text.  I may also write in a paraphrase or poetic translation, in a different color than the literal translation just so my eye can distinguish.  If there’s some pesky, godawful singing translation already printed in the score, I can erase it first using forScore’s “Whiteout Pen” option.

It’s during these kinds of tasks that I really appreciate having a tablet.  I like having the equivalent of a big, heavy bookshelf full of dictionaries and reference books and scores all on this slim little tablet that I can take anywhere. The information is accessible to me at any time and place, so I can work on the translation wherever I happen to be.  With my translation document stored in the cloud using Evernote or Dropbox, I can read it or work on it regardless of whether I have my laptop, iPad, or phone with me.

There are some other kinds of translation tech resources that I haven’t looked into yet but would like to, for example, translation-related iPad apps (myLanguage Translator Pro looks interesting and has good reviews) and also dictionaries/references in app or ebook format that work offline.  But I will have to save that for a future blog post.

Related Posts:

• Coming up: Tech tools for working with music texts
• Working with music texts, Part 1: Find the text online, then sync it to the cloud!
• Digital dictionaries for translating archaic words and spellings

Tip: Faster loading of PDF scores on Android

Credit: Sandisk

While I’m on the topic of slow, crashy PDF scores and tools like Fast PDF Scores to fix them, here’s a tip I picked up from ChoralNet: If you’re reading scores from an Android tablet and they’re stored on an SD card, you might have fewer problems with slow score loading/reading if you use a faster SD card such as a Class 10 card.  Also, you can try an app like SD-Booster to speed up your score loading and reading.

Related Posts:

• BIG NEWS! MobileSheets PDF music reader for Android now supports annotation
• More posts tagged “Android”

Fast PDF Scores: Get fast, usable versions of scanned music scores

Credit: Center for Instructional Technology, Duke University

A friend of mine will soon launch a beta version of Fast PDF Scores, an online service that optimizes your PDF scores so that you can load and read them faster on your computer or mobile device, and not have the score crash your reader.  Sign up for the beta here.  The website has a sample of an optimized PDF file that you can download and try out.  Here’s the description of Fast PDF Scores from the website:

Do you often find it very slow to load your scanned music scores and turn the pages? Does that make many of your PDF scores unusable for rehearsals and performances?

Fast PDF Scores optimizes any PDF and fixes these problems. Submit your score and quickly get back a much faster version. You’ll be able to easily load and flip through scores that used to crash your favorite desktop or mobile reader.

Working with music texts, Part 1: Find the text online, then sync it to the cloud!

This is part 1 of the Tech tools for working with music texts series.

Step 1: Find the text – preferably in a form I can cut/paste

Here are some websites I use to look up cut-and-paste-friendly texts for various kinds of vocal repertoire:

• Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) – Texts & some translations for: choral works, arias from oratorios and other concert works; mass/requiem/other sacred texts
• Bach-Cantatas.com – Texts & translations of Bach cantatas
• Gilbert & Sullivan Archive – Complete texts of the G&S operas
• The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Archive – Texts & translations for a vast array of vocal literature
• Aria Database – Opera aria texts & some translations
• Opera Guide – Lots of libretto translations in German and English; some original language libretti in German, Italian, and French
• OperaGlass – Libretti and and much, much more
• Lyle Neff’s Libretto Page – More libretti
• Kareol – Libretti including 20th-century works; in the original language and in Spanish translation; click on “Por Autores” for composer or “Por Obras” for title; when you get to the page for the specific opera, click on the “Libreto” link at the very bottom of the page
• Leyerle Publications – Text, translations, and IPA.  Home of the excellent Nico Castel libretti books, the Beaumont Glass books of lieder texts, and many other comprehensive song text reference books.  Okay, it’s not an online resource (well, mostly not) but everybody needs to know about these books – you can always go to the library and scan them
• IPA Source ($$$) – Text, translations, and IPA for songs and arias; note that you CANNOT copy/paste from their texts because they are in secured PDF files
• SingersBabel ($$$) – Text, translations, IPA, and audio for choral works and oratorio arias, art song, and song cycles.  Not sure if their PDFs are cut/paste-able. [Update: Dan M. at SingersBabel says: “The PDFs on the site are secure and therefore copy/paste isn’t possible, but the original text and poetic translation (when available) can be copied from the box directly above the PDF.”  Thanks for the clarification, Dan!]
• Poetry and literature websites – e.g. the poetry of Goethe or the complete works of Shakespeare
• Google – because sometimes texts crop up on random websites or in liner/program notes online

It’s not unusual for me to have to do some quality control and vetting of texts I find online.  Sometimes they are well-edited.  Other times I run across questionable quality, discrepancies due to different editions, or translation mistakes.

Ebooks are another way to get texts, sometimes for free.  For example, here are free ebook libretti at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Project Gutenberg.  Apple’s iBooks store has some free opera libretti too.  To read the Amazon and B&N ebooks, you can download the Kindle app or Nook app for most tablets and smartphones.

If a text isn’t available in a convenient electronic format, there are, of course, lots of printed reference books too.  One could try scanning the text or libretto from a book using the OCR option on your scanning software and extracting the text that way.

Once I have the text in electronic format, I upload it to a cloud-based service so that I can access it anytime from my laptop, iPad, or smartphone.  This way, I always have the text with me to study and review.  I can view the texts on my iPad, where my score library already lives.  And if I’m translating or annotating the text, I can work on it on my iPad while I’m on the go.

So far, I’ve been using Evernote (like a notepad app in the cloud) to store and edit plain text versions, or Dropbox if the text is in a PDF document.  Since forScore can import PDFs from Dropbox, I can put my text into a forScore setlist together with my score.  In the future, I might try out a more heavy-duty iPad/Android office suite such as Quickoffice Pro HD that would let me edit texts as a Word document, sync them to my Dropbox, and export them to PDF files that could be transferred to forScore.

Related Posts:

• Coming up: Tech tools for working with music texts
• Working with music texts, Part 2: Translate the text

Coming up: Tech tools for working with music texts

Credit: Wikimedia

I have a system for learning texts for works of music.  I’m continually trying to make improvements to it, and to make myself actually follow the process.  My process is a little bit different for concert/recital works vs. stage works, but it goes something like this:

1. Find the text – preferably in a form I can cut/paste
2. Translate the text – if not in English (or if in archaic English!)
3. Dramatic intention – Paraphrase the text, work out a subtext
4. Work the diction – make IPA notes/transcriptions, listen to recordings of native speakers singing or reciting the text
5. Memorization – listen to the text, speak the text in monologue/dialogue/rhythm
6. Review & Reinforce – this is the time when you’re in rehearsals and think you’re off-book, but keep flubbing little lines in the recits, etc., so it’s about finding ways to drill and kill…

In the next few posts, I’ll discuss some of the tech tools and online resources I use to get things done when I’m learning texts.