Category talk:French texts

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What is CPDL's policy on modernizing older texts?

I ask because of a recent change to Il est bel et bon by Geertje van Arum—in the edit, old spellings like "mesnaige" or "prens" were changed to "ménage" and "prends", respectively.

This practice makes it easier to understand the text for readers of the modern language (in this case, French), it makes it more difficult for derive an "historical pronunciation" for use in an HIP/HAP performance. One could make a similar case for medieval Latin, Italian, Spanish, etc. Kkroon, 2006-10-21

I would personally favour keeping the old texts and having a modernised text as well if the original is uncomprehensable by native speakers of the descended language. eg. a if a composer has set a text in Old English, I would have the original and a modern English translation by the side. -- Bobnotts 18:33, 25 February 2007 (PST)

I concurr, the original spelling has to be retained, be it only because we have so much Renaissance music on CPDL (it would be a daunting task to transpose all the old spelling into modern spelling). Of course another text using modern spelling would be welcome in most cases, and every translation in foreign languages has to be made in modern orthography. -- Arthur 2007-02-26 05:32 CET (04:32 UTC)