Robert Patterson wrote: [snip]> every language came into the language from some other language, and
musical terms in English are no exception.
[snip]
You had me until here -- words have to begin somewhere, so in some language, each word has been original at some point. :-)
I agree with you concerning the Italian words having slipped over into English, where words don't have gender.
I also point out that in dealing with Italian words in older music such as by Bach and Mozart and Haydn and people of that vintage (and into the Classical era and Romantic era as well), those composers spoke Italian and so their use of any musical terms from Italian is much more idiomatic and not merely taken from a music dictionary, and so need to be considered more carefully than, for example, an American who only speaks English deciding to write Allegro at the start of a musical work.
I wonder why violins and violas have different genders in Italian? -- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
