Dan,
The purported "Ellis Island" name manglings is a myth.
Every immigrant's name had to be and was matched to the ship's manifest,
and any deviation was massively illegal.
So any changes people claim were made either at naturalization, or at
the passport office in the "old country".
Cheers,
RT
On 5/8/2013 12:05 PM, Dan Winheld wrote:
For a while (in the Siena book, anyway) Francesco was "da Parigi"- but
in the end just a vacation- "Busman's Holiday". And of course, Alberto
da Ripa- who stayed in France, but then Francophoned to "de Rippe",
like Jean Paul Paladin- "Had lute, would travel". It can get
complicated; Ottaviano dei Petrucci- da Fossombrone & Venezia.
Some European surnames imposed on the unwilling were less than
complimentary- Katzenellenbogen (Cat's Elbow) for example. And in the
United States there is a whole class of newly manufactured names based
solely on language mangling at Ellis Island by overworked &
undereducated immigration officials. My wife's mother's family name
"Choderowski" is now "Toder". My own grandfather, fluent in Russian
and French, but not yet English, attempted to anglicise the family
name from "Winogradski" to Winheld. Swing and a miss; no one to blame
but himself- "Winheld" has no meaning in any terrestrial tongue.
Danielito de New York, but "da Berkeley" since 1987.
On 5/8/2013 5:24 AM, Christopher Wilke wrote:
Tobiah,
Nothing wrong with calling him "da Milano," although in actually
usage he's one of the few, like Michelangelo or Josquin, who are
frequently referred to by first name. We do say, "da Vinci." Yes,
this
literally translates to "of ______," but place names were - and
are -
common surnames. They happen in most European languages, i.e. the
French "de Visee," "de Gaulle," etc. Sometimes, the modifier
might be
honorific or an indication of noble lineage; sometimes not. Anton
von
Webern had to drop his "von" because of Austrian government
regulation
following WWI.
The first part may be left off, but this is optional and largely
dictated by tradition. We usually refer to Giovanni Pierluigi as
"Palestrina" and seldom "da Palestrina," and it is more common to
hear
of "Beethoven" rather than "van Beethoven" - which is actually a
Dutch,
rather than German name. (Or you could go with "Ludwig van," like
in a
Clockwork Orange.) On the other hand, one never hears about "Gogh"
without his "van."
Chris
Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A.
Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer
www.christopherwilke.com
--- On Tue, 5/7/13, Tobiah <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Tobiah <[email protected]>
Subject: [LUTE] Frank from Milan
To: "'Lute Net'" <[email protected]>
Date: Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 10:43 PM
Ok, my last college class was 20 year ago now. I thought
that I was told that "Francesco Canova da Milano" basically
meant "Francesco Canova from Milan (Italy)". I was reading the
surprisingly brief wikipedia article about the aforementioned
individual, and I came across this:
A composition called "Canzona by Francesco da Milano" (better
known as
the song "The City of Gold") is commonly misattributed to da Milano.
So, if I am not grossly mistaken about my interpretation of the
entire handle with which we refer to the beloved 'Frank', then
I wonder if it can at all be correct to refer to him as
"da Milano". Wouldn't that be like one of you referencing
this letter and remarking that it was written by "From California"?
I expect much from the ever flowing fount of knowledge and wisdom
that is this list!
Thanks,
Tobiah
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