Russian Pronunciation in Sacred Choral Music

[thbslawson.livejournal.com]

Greetings all,

I've been learning a spattering of Russian here and there over the past year or so, and am glad to join the group here.

I have a question regarding pronunciation, especially in Choral music, if anyone can help. I know that in most cases when "o" is unstressed in Russian it is pronounced like an "a", and sometimes, although I'm not sure what the rule is for this, the "g" takes on a "v" sound. Therefore when I read the text from Alexander Grechaninov's Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom it would sound like this Veruyu vo edinavo Gospada Iisusa Khrista, Syna Bozhiya, edinarodnava. What's interesting is that on both of the recordings I have, one by a Chezh Choir, the other by an English, the words are not only written but are pronounced, edinago...Gospoda...edinorodnago, and in other parts of the work yevo is pronounced yego. Is this an old way of pronouncing or is it a mistake? I can understand the English choir messing it up, but I would assume that someone in the Czech choir would know. I can't seem to find a Russian recording, and the Russians I know here in the states haven't a clue about sacred choral music. Thanks for the help.

S Bogom,
Thomas

Russian Verbs

[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Привет! My friend "Марисса" recently found 501 Russian Verbs in a free book bin and snagged it for me. As I flip through, I notice that it is structured differently from my 501 Verb books for French and Spanish. For starters, the verbs themselves seem to be different. Every verb has two forms like — *flips to random page* — курить / покурить [kurit' / pokurit'] (which means "to smoke, burn"). What are the different forms? Also, some say ся [sja] after the verb in parenthesis, for instance купать (ся) / выкупать (ся) [kupat' (sja) / vykupat' (sja)] which means "to bathe, give a bath (bath, go swimming). Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Also — can anyone recommend a good book that teaches basic vocab and grammar? Right now all I can do is read Cyrillic and say a *few* words.