Music: Find Musical Texts & Translations

Online Resouces

IPA Source: IPA Transcriptions and Literal Translations of Songs and Arias (International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA))
The library of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) includes transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts. In addition it includes MP3 recordings of various song and aria texts for pronounciation help in Latin, Italian, German, and French. As well there is information on the German Fach System, a voice classification tool, Diction Help, and other information pages.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

LiederNet Archive
The LiederNet Archive is the world’s largest reference archive of texts and translations of art songs and choral works. 174,391 vocal pieces have been catalogued.38,129 translations are available.
The Aria Database
The Aria Database is a collection of information about opera and operatic arias. Besides providing basic information about each aria, the Database includes translations for many arias and aria texts for those that are not affected by copyright restrictions. The Database also provides access to a collection of operatic sound files to give visitors an idea of what each aria sounds like. In addition, the Aria Database contains information on available scores and sound files that can be purchased to aid in study and enjoyment. Currently, the Database holds information on the complete operatic aria collections of Mozart, Verdi, Berlioz, Wagner, and Puccini as well as the partial collections of over 50 other composers.
Mozart-Libretti
the Mozarteum Salzburg Foundation offers a digital edition of the text sources for the settings by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart according to scientific criteria.

How to find texts and translations in the library

Books of translation/transcriptions

Most translation resources are classed in the range ML47-ML54.8. You may want to try these other searches using searches in the library catalogue:

Song and vocal chamber music texts

Songs -- Texts
Songs, German -- Texts (Substitute another language for "German")

Opera Libretti

Operas -- Librettos

To find the libretto of a specific opera, use the Advanced search in the Library catalogue:

Enter the composer's name and words from the original name of the opera (e.g., use nozze, not marriage)
Write librettos as a "Subject".

Translations in Scores

Several scores include translations, either singable ones printed with the music or poetic ones printed separately. To locate these scores use the Library catalogue:

Enter composer and work/genre as keywords.
Type translation*. (The * is a truncation symbol and will retrieve records with either translation or translations.)
Select Score as the format.