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Hello IMSLP Forum!

I wrote a message to Icactus (administrator of IMSLP), that unfortunately I can't find. But I had his quick response:

Posted at 22:38 14 may 2012 by Icactus wrote:Hi Klaviernatum!

Thanks for the message. I don't personally know how that functionality would be added but it sounds like a good idea and not to hard to implement. I would suggest posting what you wrote to me on the forums ([http://imslpforums.org http://imslpforums.org]) under the "Feature Requests/Bug Reports" section so everyone can see it and comment on it.

The idea is simple:
In the main name of the article of a Composer/Performer, add a roll-over function (if applies) which 'speaks out' the 'internationally correct' pronuntiation for that composer/performer. e.g. In the 'Pierre Boulez' article, the user places the mouse cursor on the name and IMSLP prononuces <Piej Bules> not <Piej Bulé>.
And the user smiles and repeat: "ahh, Piej Bulé! ... Even easier: <Volfgang> instead of <wolfgang> in Mozart's case.

That functionallity could work with 'google translator' (or something better. e.g. in the creation of the article the user can record with his voice the 'correct' pronuntiation).

Why this Idea should be implemented?
Well... think about the bunch of discussions around the world ( not Only Europe!) conserning musicians, musicologist, theorist, café makers, etc. about how to pronounce Boulez!

Perhaps this already was talked. If so, excuse this message.

Thank you,
Klaviernatum.

Thanks for the idea. Unfortunately, if I understand correctly, this would be extremely hard to do, requiring extensive interfacing with Google (unless someone is willing to pronounce 5000+ names). Therefore, it is probably unlikely that this will be implemented in the near future. Of course, if you are willing to write the code it would be different.

Well, there is forvo.com - maybe there could be some sort of function that automatically performs a search for the term there and links directly to their first result if it finds something? There are already a few links to this site on our composer pages (though not many).

Interesting... I'll check out that site. Could be possible.

I remember a similar feature embedded in Wikipedia some time ago (as a speaker icon next to the main name of the article), which for some reason it dessapeared...

I think this is a very good idea, though I quibble with your title. It isn't really anything "international" that is needed, rather the *original* pronunciation of the name by the composer and peers. So for example, it would be nice to hear how a Czech speaker pronounces Dvorak and Fibich in particular, and for non-French speakers practically any French composer, and so on and so on.

This is a wonderful example of how something utterly impractical in the days of printed publication -- "How on earth would you find experts in pronouncing Czech, Hungarian, and Japanese?" -- is now simple. Native speakers will contribute all this knowledge given an opportunity. Not only is such a scheme easier, since it does not require any one person to do a huge amount of work, it's also better to have a real speaker from as close as possible to the composer's birthplace (Hey, I can do Vaughan-Williams!) than just a rendering of the IPA phonetic version.

In practice this probably involves a bit of wiki programming to set up the contribution system, and the database requires each entry to have the recording (obviously!), the name of the contributor speaking it, and their qualifications: e.g. native speaker of Czech, lifetime resident of Všebořice, "my grandfather met Fibich", etc.