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
ia
(if accented) sia
ie
cieli
io
(if ‘o’ is accented) ciò
oi
noi
ua
tua
ue
sue
uo
tuo
fai
(unaccented) faccia perdoniam grazia
pien
(if ‘o’ is unaccented) rio
guardi
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
avvenga il
questa orazion
siccome in cielo, in terra, in unione
becomes
becomes
becomes
becomes
sempreil
avvengail
questaorazion
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
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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
2
gh
gn
preghiam
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
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PATER NOSTER – Text as set by Verdi, 1880
O padre nostro, che ne’ cieli stai,
Santificato sia sempre il tuo nome,
E laude e grazia di ciò che ci fai.
O our father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name always,
And praise and thanks be for everything that thou doest.
Avvenga il regno tuo, siccome pone
Questa orazion: tua volontà si faccia,
Siccome in cielo, in terra in unione.
Thy kingdom come, as this prayer entreats:
Thy will be done,
On earth, as it is in heaven.
Padre, dà oggi a noi pane, e ti piaccia
Che ne perdoni il peccati nostri;
Nè cosa noi facciam che ti dispiaccia.
Father, give us this day our daily bread,
And may it please thee to forgive us our sins:
And let us not do anything that displeases thee.
E che noi perdoniam, tu ti dimostri
Esempio a noi per la tua gran virtute;
Acciò dal rio nemico ognun si schiostri.
And in order that we may forgive, thou makest thyself
An example to us through thy great goodness;
So that we can all escape from the cruel enemy.
Divino Padre, pien d'ogni salute,
Ancor ci guarda dalla tentazione
Dell’ infernal nemico e sue ferute.
Heavenly Father, fount of all salvation,
Keep us always from temptation,
From the satanic enemy and his onslaughts.
Si che a te facciamo orazione,
Che meritiam tua grazia, e il regno vostro
A posseder vegniam con divozione.
As we pray to thee
That we may deserve thy grace
And that we may devoutly enter into thy kingdom,
Preghiamti, re di gloria e signor nostro,
Che tu ci guardi da dolore: e fitto
La mente abbiamo in te, col volto prostro.
Amen.
We beg thee, King of Glory and our Lord,
To preserve us from sorrow: and we have
Our minds fixed on thee, with head lowered.
Amen.
Attributed to Dante:
based on Purgatorio, XI. 1–24
(Literal translation
from OUP edition)
Italian pronunciation guide_2014
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