Stravinsky may not have *been* Italian, but he certainly wrote out his instrumentation in Italian (at least in Le Sacre). I can see making the gender distinctions if your instrument names are in Italian. But if your instrument names are in English (i.e., "violins" "violas", even "bassoons" and "bass drum", wh. do not even originate in Italian), then putting "tutte" over the "violas" section is precious nonsense. In this context "tutti" for "violas" is hardly ignorant or the work of cranks.
The original question was about the English translation of "mezza voce". But to my mind "mezza voce" is already perfectly good English, with a proper definition in English language dictionaries and a well-understood meaning among (at least a certain class of) English speaking monolinguals. On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 11:43 AM, Andrew Stiller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On May 30, 2008, at 7:19 AM, Robert Patterson wrote: > >> I had a >> composition teacher in grad school who used to insist that I use >> "tutte" in the viola section and "tutti" for the other strings. I >> refused on the grounds that "tutti" is a perfectly good English word >> that is gender-free (as are "violin" and "viola"). My dictionary backs >> me up. >> >> Some people object to this line of reasoning saying that these words >> are just commonly used Italian words. But I say that every word in >> every language came into the language from some other language, and >> musical terms in English are no exception. >> > > The problem is that "tutte" (and sola, sole, le altre) are widely used by > composers whose language is neither English nor Italian. Stravinsky, > frinstance. You are perfectly correct on the linguistics issue--but that's > simply not the question. The issue is not English vs. Italian, but of > orthodox music notation. The situation is similar to the three musical > meanings of "horn," which are used in varying contexts. To a classical > musician, "horn" means the specific brass instrument that other languages > call Horn, corno, cor, etc.; to the lay public, "horn" means "any brass > instrument;" and in jazz, "horn" means "any wind instrument." Both of these > latter meanings require the modifier "French" to designate the specific > instrument. So "French horn" is perfectly correct English, but if you use it > in any classical context, you risk having the reader think you're iggerant. > > The same thing applies to solo/sola and the rest. Violists (and > conductors!) will certainly understand you if you write "tutti", but you > risk having them think y'r a doofus. > > Unless your name is Percy Grainger, in wh. case y'r merely a crank. > > Andrew Stiller > Kallisti Music Press > http://www.kallistimusic.com/ > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
