Prid. Id. Dec.
Salvete, Amici!
As the new president of the Classical Association of Connecticut, I’d like to invoke what Horace terms in Sermones II.vi, libertas Decembris, and offer some year-end nugae.
Normally in December we would announce the annual Latin Carol Sing at Central Connecticut State University, an event which, due to a certain pandemic, the public at present would be unable to attend. In lieu of that event, I offer you my current playlist of Top Five Latin Pop Musical Recordings! (No, it’s not even close to the same, but we do what we can.)
#5 Ray Manzarek’s “Veris Leta Facies” from an all-electric version of Carmina Burana (1983). Manzarek was the keyboardist from The Doors. It’s Ray Manzarek, and it’s never too early to think about Spring.
#4 Enya’s “Cursum Perficio” from her release Watermark (1988). Sure, a little Enya goes a long way, and a lot of Enya is way too much. However, she is second on the list of best-selling Irish musicians, only behind U2. If she has audiences tuning into Latin lyrics, I’m all for it. (Can’t get enough of Enya’s Latin? Check out “Afer Ventus” from 1991’s Shepherd Moons.)
#3 Reine Rimon eiusque Papa Fervidissimi’s “Eh, La Bas” from their 1993 album Variationes Horatianae Iazzicae. It’s a Dixieland-jazz setting of Horace’s Carmina I.18. Sure, she plays fast and loose with Horace’s Latin, but, hey, it swings!
#2 Cat Stevens’ “O Caritas” off Catch Bull at Four (1972). This has been my favorite Latin song ever since, as a high school student, I said to myself (because who else was listening?) “Hey, look how he darkly tweaked that famous gladiator line with ‘nos perituri mortem salutamus!’”
And the British singer’s song would still be my favorite (and very well might return to the #1 slot again), but right now that designation goes to the very new:
#1 John Linnell’s “Nunc aut Numquam” from Roman Songs (2021). If you know and love They Might Be Giants, this is that John Linnell. This song captures the same playful, and catchy, inscrutability of TMBG. (Don’t, however, confuse this song with “Nunc Hic aut Numquam,” Dr. Jukka Ammondt’s 1995 Latinized Elvis Presley song from The Legend Lives Forever in Latin. Trust me, Elvis has left the building.)
Enough music.
At this point in my letter, I should probably declare proudly something like “In 2022, ClassConn will return on ground and in person for all meetings and events!” But, if the past year-and-three-quarters has taught us anything, it’s “That’d be plain foolish,” so I won’t.
I will, however, point out the obvious (well, obvious to ClassConn members). The language of COVID highlights our deeply classical linguistic heritage. “Epidemiologists” are working their way through the Greek alphabet one “variant” at a time. Indeed, the entire course of the “pandemic” (from “infection,” “incubation,” “symptom,” “communicability,” “ventilator,” and “mortality,” to “protocol,” “vaccination,” and “immunity” — even “coronavirus” itself) betrays the debt the “history” of “medicine” owes Greek and Latin. Let’s just be sure our “students” (and neighbors, for that matter) realize that, too!
Please continue following the protocols and get your shots; remember, there are still a whole lotta those Greek letters remaining.
For all you do, for your students, for the study of ancient languages and cultures in Connecticut and beyond, and for ClassConn itself, gratias vobis ago.
And, naturally, Io Saturnalia!
Valete,
Gil Gigliotti