Makes some sense of why John Williams called his band Attacca Thanks! David McKay
Sent from my iPhone On 18/09/2011, at 6:23 AM, Mark D Lew <[email protected]> wrote: > On Jul 22, 2011, at 3:43 AM, David H. Bailey wrote: > >> Attacca literally means "attacks" (as in "attack the next song immediately) > > This is an old post, but as I'm cleaning out my Finale mailbox I'd like to > point out that attacca does NOT literally mean "attack". > > Attaccare is to connect, to join. The relevant English cognate here would be > "attach". > > A few etymological tidbits for those who enjoy such things: > > - "Staccato" is a related word here. Often in Italian an "s" at the front of > a word suggests an opposite (similar to our prefix "dis-"). Thus, attaccare = > attach, staccare = detach, staccato = detached. > > - The English word "attack" is also related. It originates from a shortening > of the Italian phrase "attaccare battaglia", to join in battle. > > As always, the caveat: Literal Italian translations can be interesting > background information, but musical terms are not to be treated literally. > They are long adapted to musical language, and they mean what they mean to > musicians, whatever their etymological origin. > > mdl > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
