Madhu Kanda. Adhyaya 1, Brahmana 3. The contest of the vital breath
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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.
Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.
Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.
The breath as the Udgitha
He is also the Udgitha. The breath is ut, for by the breath all this is held up; speech is githa. And because it is ut and githa, it is the Udgitha.
This vital breath is also the Udgitha, the loud chant. The breath is ut (the upholding), for by the breath this whole world is held up and sustained; speech is githa (the song). Being both ut and githa together, it is the Udgitha.
In the commentaries
Sankara: the very name Udgitha names the breath, ut because all things are upheld by the breath, githa as the song that is speech; the chant praised from the start is thus the vital breath itself joined with speech.