đŸŽ¶ Se tu m’ami – Week 1: Understanding the Language & Context

Se tu m ami

Welcome to Week 1 of our 3-week intensive study group on Se tu m’ami!

This week is dedicated to exploring the text: what it means, how it sounds, and how it can be spoken with expression. By Sunday, you’ll have a word-for-word translation, an IPA transcription, and a dramatic Italian reading ready to bring into next week’s musical work.

💡 Bonus tonebase Content: Watch Derrick Goff’s Italian Diction Coursefor help with Italian vowel shapes and consonant clarity.

 

📅 Daily Assignments

Day 1 – First Encounter

  • Read the text in Italian:
    Se tu m’ami, se tu sospiri, sol per me, gentil pastor


  • Write down your first impressions. Does it feel romantic, playful, sincere, or ironic?

  • Prompt: Share one word that jumped out at you and why.

📌 Tip: Copy the text into your score with space above for IPA and below for translation.

Day 2 – IPA Foundations

  • Begin transcribing the text into IPA.

  • Watch for:

    • Elision (m’ami → [ˈmaːmi])

    • Double consonants (sospiri → [sosˈpiːri])

    • Open vs. closed e and o.

  • Prompt: Post one line of your IPA transcription for group comparison.

📌 Fun Activity: Pick a vowel (like /i/ or /a/) and highlight every word with it. How does that sound color the character of the text?

Day 3 – Word-for-Word Translation

  • Translate the Italian literally:
    Se (if) tu (you) m’ami (love me) se (if) tu (you) sospiri (sigh)


  • Prompt: Share one part where the literal translation surprised or amused you.

📌 Tip: Use a three-line layout in your score:
IPA (top) | Italian (middle) | Translation (bottom).

Day 4 – Dramatic Reading in Your Language

  • Read the text dramatically in your native language.

  • Think about tone—serious, playful, teasing?

  • Prompt: Record and post a short dramatic reading in your language.

Day 5 – Italian Reading with Stress

  • Read the Italian text slowly, using your IPA as a guide.

  • Mark the stressed syllables (e.g. SE | tu | M’Àmi).

  • Prompt: Which stressed word felt the most playful or dramatic when spoken aloud?

Day 6 – Context & Culture

  • Research Se tu m’ami: long attributed to Pergolesi but actually written by Alessandro Parisotti in the 19th century (as part of his Arie Antiche collection). Why might Parisotti have “rebranded” this piece?

  • Prompt: Share one historical or cultural fact that changes how you hear the piece.

Day 7 – Dramatic Italian Reading

  • Bring it all together: IPA + stresses + translation. Read the text in Italian with full drama—as if on stage.

  • Prompt: How does this feel compared to Day 1? Share your insight.

  • Reply to at least two other participants—encourage or add reflections.

🎭 Fun Along the Way

  • Try reading the text in three tones: sincere, ironic, and teasing. Which fits best?

  • Make a “sound hunt”: gather all the words with /a/ and /i/ and practice saying them in sequence.

  • Listen to two recordings—notice how one singer leans into the playful irony while another sings it straight.

📚 A Scholarly Lens

“By writing IPA transcriptions alongside literal translations, singers internalize the text as sound and sense, not simply spelling. This practice lays the foundation for expressive performance.”
— Journal of Singing, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Nov/Dec 2017), pp. 203–210

✹ By the end of Week 1 you will:

  • Have a complete word-for-word translation in your score

  • Be comfortable reading and pronouncing the IPA transcription

  • Recognize the stress patterns in Italian

  • Have practiced dramatic readings in both your language and Italian

  • Engaged with peers in discussion and feedback

20 replies

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    • Michelle
    • 13 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi everyone!

    I've not sung Se tu m’ami  before, nor heard it, so it's brand new for me.

    If I must choose one primary thing to focus on, it will be reinforcing what I've already been taught about how to start a piece that I don't know. The only piece with which I've done a full start from scratch process (which seems quite similar to how this is laid out, except I haven't used IPA before) is Caro mio ben. 

    Looking forward to working through this piece!

      • Michelle
      • 12 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Day 1: First Encounter ... a whole lotta words I don't know! 

      My first impression, looking more at the  music than the words, gave me a sense of playfulness; even though it's in a minor key, it seems light and bouyant. 

      The word "facilmente" jumped out at me because I thought, "Hey, that looks like an easy word!" đŸ˜‰

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 12 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Even though we are working through these very common pieces, really what we are working on is the PROCESS. Learning HOW to learn a new piece is one of the most important lessons in singing. Hoping this challenge helps solidify those skills for you! 

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 12 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Bingo! It is actually quite a flirty piece ;) 

    • Michelle
    • 11 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Day 2: IPA I watched the short into to IPA - honestly, I didn't get much out of it. I can see the value in knowing this system (my older son studied and knows the IPA quite well, so I have some rudimentary knowledge of it just from being around him), but am not certain the juice is worth the squeeze for me right now. There are so many other things I'm trying to learn, but I'll give it a go for the experience (I used a different mark for stressed syllables):

    [se] [tu] [`ma:.mi] [se] [tu] [sos.`pi.ri]

    [sol][per] (or would this use the É› symbol?) 

    [me] [ʀɛn.`til] [pas.`tɔr]

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 10 days ago
      • Reported - view

        
      ɛ symbol is the best bet for that one. 

      Getting comfortable with the IPA may at first seem like a tedious job, but it really helps solidify the concept of vowels, in particular, as specifically formed sounds (and not letters). Italian is the perfect language to start with as it has a much more predictable selection of vowels. Ideally, at the end of this week, you will have  good grasp of those cardinal vowels (the rest might be overkill, in all honesty). The fun exercise for you will be to apply that to English, where the vowels are more complex ;) 

      • Michelle
      • 10 days ago
      • Reported - view

       When I told my piano teacher that IPA was part of this challenge, he said, "Good luck!" And that at conservatory the voice students took a semester just on IPA, so I should recognize that learning and putting this into practice won't be something I can do overnight. If I can figure out a few of the more frequent vowels, I'll be more than happy!

    • Michelle
    • 11 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Day 3 Literal Translation of text:

    Se tu m'ami, se tu sospiri = "If you love me, if you sigh"
    Sol per me, gentil pastor, = "Only for me, gentle shepherd,"
    Ho dolor de' tuoi martiri, = "I have sorrow of your sufferings,"
    Ho diletto del tuo amor, = "I have delight of your love,"
    Ma se pensi che soletto = "But if you think that alone"
    Io ti debba riamar, = "I must love you again (in return),"
    Pastorello, sei soggetto = "Little shepherd, you are subject"
    Facilmente a t'ingannar. = "Easily to deceive you."

    Bella rosa porporina = "Beautiful little-purple rose"
    Oggi Silvia sceglierĂ  = "Today Silvia will choose"
    Con la scusa della spina = "With the excuse of the thorn"
    Doman poi la sprezzerĂ  = "Tomorrow then (she) will scorn it"
    Ma degli uomini il consiglio = "But of men the counsel"
    Io per me non seguirĂČ = "I for myself will not follow"
    Non perchĂ© mi piace il giglio = "Not because the lily pleases me"
    Gli altri fiori sprezzerĂČ = "The other flowers I will scorn"

    "The counsel of men I...will not follow" is an interesting line, which leads me to research further into the language to see if it is "men" as in male or "men" as in "mankind." I'll look at grammar, etc. as well. Then I'll write this into my score.

    I decided with the IPA to learn the vowels and any tricky consonants, but that will need to happen this weekend as I don't have time until then.

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 10 days ago
      • Reported - view

       you can stick with just vowels, that is really where the challenge lies ;) 

    • Michelle
    • 10 days ago
    • Reported - view

    OK - because it's a little lonely here on the "Se tu m'ami" page, I decided to have fun with the dramatic reading in my native tongue. Please feel free to laugh, and just for reference, I'm from Alabama originally. How many words do you hear that you THOUGHT were only one syllable words, but in Southern English have more than one??? đŸ˜‚

    https://youtu.be/IPLESd2sZ78

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 9 days ago
      • Reported - view

       O my gosh!! I LOVE this đŸ˜‚.. exactly the spirit of the piece. She's such a flirt! Truly made my night đŸ˜‚

      • Michelle
      • 9 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I'm so glad you enjoyed it. It was fun to figure out, though I've changed some things even since recording it!

      And what most people don't realize (and I didn't realize until I moved away from the South) is that we Southerners flirt from the time we're born. We flirt with everybody and everything. It's just part of who we are. I had to learn NOT to flirt when I moved to the west coast. People take it seriously out here, but back home flirting is as natural (and as expected) as breathing!! So, this is the perfect song for me to learn. đŸ˜‰

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 9 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I had no idea you were a southerner - you've certainly worked that accent out 😄.. I have a real affinity for Southern Culture - it's so fascinating and rich - the hospitality, the literature the FOOD!!  I personally daydream about moving to Savannah 😂. West Coast is a very different subculture (says a transplant from the Northeast). I would suspect that the Pacific Northwest has its own flavor, too. .. on a related note, I had a friend in undergrad who was from Louisiana. She had a terrible time with IPA - she couldn't isolate single vowels (so many diphthongs in her native speech patterns đŸ˜‚).  

      • Michelle
      • 9 days ago
      • Reported - view

       The area of Alabama I grew up in was unique, and my Southern accent was never quite as strong as people from other areas. But as soon as I go back home, my accent returns! What I think I retain at all times, though, is the rhythm of the speech - Southern speech patterns are actually quite musical, and that is the hardest part to imitate when people try to fake a southern accent! 

      Our little town was founded by Italians, and we were surrounded by other small towns founded by the Swiss, Germans, Greeks, etc. I grew up with many different cultures around me (with their respective foods - I remember my first time going to an Olive Garden restaurant, and thinking "This isn't Italian food? Why is everything so bland?"). Many of my teachers in grade school were Irish, so I had that non-southern influence as well. Interestingly, my vocal teacher is originally from Texas, which you'd never know just talking to him. 

    • Michelle
    • 9 days ago
    • Reported - view

    I'm having some challenge figuring out how to speak certain of the words correctly, and it seems that it will be especially difficult when they occur on an eighth note. I think I'll visit the Italian diction course and see if that helps. If I need some assistance, I'll post it here, otherwise my next post will be about stressed words. (Poor words. Always stressed in one way or another.)

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 9 days ago
      • Reported - view

       That's what I'm here for. Let me know if you need any specific guidance - happy to make a quick recording ;) 

      • Michelle
      • 8 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Heidi. The one word I'm having difficulty with is "tuoi." I think I understand what I'm supposed to say, i.e. each vowel is sounded, but getting my mouth around it is proving challenging. I think if I just pronounce it slowly for a while, I'll get it. 

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 6 days ago
      • Reported - view

       You move through all those vowels so quickly that they begin to feel very legato - that is the nature of Italian music. They don't always give you a new pitch just because you change the actual sound. You have stumbled on a prime example of that here! 

    • Michelle
    • 7 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Day 5 - I've decided to focus on the first verse only for the next few days. So, in this section I found sospiri to sound the most playful when spoken aloud.

    Day 6 - It is possible that Parisotti rebranded the piece to align it more clearly with the time the poem (by Paolo Rolli, an 18th century poet) was written. He was aiming to "revive" what he called antique arias. So it was written in the 19th century, but with the desire of capturing the 18th century, Baroque, feeling.

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 6 days ago
      • Reported - view

       This is the general consensus in the music community. These editions are not strictly historically accurate, BUT they are a snapshot into an era of vocal music and how people approached music from an earlier era. 

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