On 2008/02/16 12:48 PM, "Kurt Kroon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I'm working on the Glossary for the GDP, and I'm stuck -- so, I'm canvassing > the list. Wow ... it's too bad no one here has any strong opinions on the matter. So, since I started the d*mn thread, I have to wrangle it back to its corral. My original question was: "You've written a composition with a passage that needs to be played in a different octave. When you describe it (this passage) to another musician, what term do you use? And do you use the same term or a different one for the actual _process of writing_ the passage in a different octave (if you even bother to name the process)?" Here's what I got: Dutch: octaveren (dank aan Alard) Finnish: Risto, you out there? I don't think anyone else can handle Finnish .... French: octaviation (merci à Valentin) German: Oktavierung (viele Dank an Reinhold) Italian: all'ottava (alta or bassa) (grazie a Andrew) Spanish: a la octava (gracias a Francisco) Danish, Swedish (and Norwegian): oktavering (tackar till Eyolf ... I think, since none of the machine translators offer any of these languages.) English -- I haven't decided yet among: * octave transposition (thanks to Trevor B., seconded by Anh T., thirded by Damian) * ottava spanners (Trevor B., in a follow-up email) * octave displacement (thanks to David F.) * all'ottava (David F., in a follow-up) * ottava passage (thanks to Ralph P.) * octave indication/indicator (ovtaKieren ... err ... thanks to Kieren) * setting the octave (I just made that up) The main points that I'm considering are -- Trevor B.: "The confusion here must be between the graphic *symbols* for things (like ottava spanners and clefs) and the musical *effects* of those things (ie, octave transposition). In general the names of the symbols are probably much more widely agreed upon than the names of the abstract processes those symbols effect." Damian: "the pragmatic 'what would i look for in the index?' approach is going to have to arbitrate here" Except that *I* have to make a decision ... eventually -- and I would probably search for "(octave OR ottava OR octavation) inurl:v2.1 site:lilypond.org" (using Google) Kieren: "Really, what we're talking about is a NOTATIONAL SHORTHAND." David F.: "Personally I like the way Groves has side stepped the issue and merely recorded the standard terms which are in Italian." So I'm going back to re-read the polemics ... err ... thread. So ... let me mull things over and come back with what I decide. If you'd like to add any last minute comments, please send them directly to me, not the list. That way, people who are trying to figure out how to do something neat in LilyPond won't have to way to arguments over the semantics of writing octaves/ottava brackets/spanners, and whether the process is called transposition/indication (a front runner!)/displacement, or whatnot. Kurtis _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user